The Only Ones Left
by Dark Nation42
Summary: After many, many months, chapter 19 is up. I doubt that I'll have many more fans at this point ... but hey, over the last eight months, my writing has improved! Anyway, in chapter 19, Iris and co. arrive at Dunestone to rescue the daemon-less(?) Tobias...
1. Escape

_(Disclaimer: I do not own the His Dark Materials series or anything related to them other than the characters that I created myself. Philip Pullman owns the series, or whatever publisher he uses, which I can't recall at the moment. Anyway.)_

_(Author's Note: The first chapter takes place in an alternate world much like Will and Lyra's respective ones, but quite a bit different, and you'll see how soon. Will and Lyra appear later on in the story. . .so thus far, there aren't any characters from the HDM books, but there will be later. . .if I can every get around to writing the other chapters. . .! Oh and by the way, Aerotsierma is pronounced Air-o-SEER-ma. Also, just for note, in this chapter Tobias is around fourteen and his dæmon is in a fixed form.)_

**CHAPTER ONE-Escape**

A luminescent full moon shone down from above in a velvet black sky, draping the sandy, rocky terrain in silver effulgence. Stars studded the heavens, twinkling far above and shining down along with the moon, still and serene in the silence of the night. A faint breeze blew through the tranquility, rustling the scant leaves of early spring across the desolate landscape of dunes.

Suddenly a rushing figure cut through the peaceful scene. Silent as the zephyrs that scuffed the sand, it scaled a dune, darting over the summit, another, smaller figure leaping gracefully after it. Far in the distance, a fierce flash of red and orange could be seen, mingling with much darker figures and their cries as they rushed across the sand in close pursuit of the figure they were after.

Tobias Bergen stuck close in the shadows, his heart racing as he avoided any spots of bright moonlight. Fear consumed his mind as he huddled in the sand, feeling the grains stick to his blood, regaining his breath and fighting unconsciousness. He could hear them coming closer. . .no, he could _feel _them coming closer, he could feel in their minds their desire to destroy him.

He fought down the sob that rose in his throat at that thought. They wanted to destroy him, just as they had everyone else. Clutching his head, fighting delirium, he fought down the anguish that rose briefly in his mind, shuddering even as his red fox dæmon nuzzled him comfortingly. She whispered calmly, "Come on, Tobias, we have to keep moving." The young boy staggered to his feet, dragging his small rucksack of meager supplies along with him, and hobbled across the sand to the next shadow.

But his pursuers were stronger and less injured, and they scaled the dune with ease, toting their sniper rifles at their sides, lifting their blazing torches above their heads. The one leading the charge was tall and gruff, his massive black wolf dæmon snarling behind him. The man paused for a moment at the top of the dune, scouring the wasteland with his eyes until he spotted the tiniest hint of movement.

_"There!"_

He ran down again, the black wolf loping at his side, his half-dozen men behind him.

Tobias saw them pause at the top of the hill and then dart down again. _Shit,_ he thought. _They saw me!_ Panic rose in his throat again, his wounds throbbing unmercifully, as he desperately viewed the area, searching for a way out.

Aerotsierma, Tobias's dæmon, loped gracefully in front of him, braving the pain that she felt through her human. She was a fiery shadow, her gorgeous red fur deep silver russet in the shadows and moonlight. Padding silently through the sand, she stopped and called back quietly, "Tobias, here, we can hide over here!"

The boy, still shaking, was seemingly unable to stand, now. He half crawled, half hobbled over to the mass of weeds and desert plants that Aerotsierma pushed away to reveal a tiny dune cave.

The dæmon could see that he was losing the battle with unconsciousness, now. She pushed him into the cave and pulled the weeds desperately into place, her small heart racing but growing sluggish at the same time, as her human was nearly senseless. Then she skulked back up onto the sand, straining against her link with Tobias as she covered up his tracks and blood trail. Then at last she disappeared into the tiny, dark cave with her human boy.

*

Tobias drifted in painful darkness.

_Am I. . .am I dead?_

Pain engulfed him, pounded through his head, sliced through his flesh, and that was enough to tell him that he was still alive. He tried to move, tried to awaken himself, but couldn't. He could feel himself moving further and further toward the realm just beyond the pain, the place where there'd be no more pain, forever and ever…

_Aerotsierma. . ._

He could see his beautiful dæmon, hovering in nothingness before his fevered vision, limp and lifeless. . .flickering. 

_No. . .Aero. . .please don't leave me. . ._

Tobias opened his eyes.

Or so he thought, but when he did, all that he saw was darkness. He moaned; after trying to move, and finding he couldn't, he whispered, "Aero?" but his voice was parched and full of pain, barely able to croak out his dæmon's name. She didn't respond, but her warm fur against his neck was enough. 

Before he did anything, he used his gift of mind to search the surrounding area for the minds of any of his enemies. He found none, and so relaxed a bit.

He could hardly breath, and he couldn't move, but at least he was alive. That in itself was a victory, and one that he never thought that he would win ever since escaping from Dunestone. But he didn't know how long his victory would last, as his body was still afire with pain, and blood still seeped from his many wounds.

For the next half hour he drifted in and out of unconsciousness, but at last grasped the fleeing wisps of wakefulness and ventured to speak again.

"Aerotsierma?" he croaked, feeling the sand and blood in his throat as he did.

"I'm here, Tobias. I'm always here."

Shivering though very warm, the young boy reached out and drew his beloved dæmon close against his bloody chest. She gently licked a vicious gash on his forehead, huddling into her beloved Tobias, who was shaking violently with pain and fear. "It's okay. I forced myself to stay awake, even while you slept, until Breyman and his men had searched the area and gone."

Tobias held her close, oblivious to the tears and blood that soaked her fur. "Oh, Aero. . .I don't deserve a friend like you. . ."

Aerotsierma licked his face again, trying to clean the blood from it. "Don't say that, Tobias, you'd do the same for me, I know you would. Oh Tobias. . .you came so close to death, you know that, I know it because I was. . .flickering, strangely, like fading. . ."

"I know. I saw you in my dream. You were disappearing. Please don't ever disappear, Aero, don't leave me, you're all I have left, all I have, they're all gone, all of them…"

Aerotsierma whispered gently, "But we made it out alive, that's enough for now. We have to be the ones who bring that horrid hellhole down to the ground, since we're the only ones left. . .we have to have hope. . ."

Tobias had regained enough strength to push the bushes aside and haul his aching half-dead body from the tiny, tightly-packed cave and out onto the sand, which was tinted rose and amber with the rising sun of a beautiful morning.

His dæmon came out behind him, stretching in the dawn light. "The knife had left an opening into our world that was never closed. We have to find it and go through, and search for those who will help us on the other side."

Tobias nodded, his tattered, bloody body shaking in the cool morning air, his face turned toward the warmth of the sun of a new day.

_"Hope. . ."_


	2. Flashback

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(Author's Note: Woo-hoo! Got chapter two up. This will explain (some of) the questions you may have been wondering about Tobias's past and the whole thing about the knife and all! Rated PG-13 for language and a tad of violence. Enjoy! (The story I mean, not the language and violence.) Toodles!)

****

CHAPTER TWO--Flashback

Days turned slowly into weeks as Tobias and his dæmon journeyed steadily onward. With him the young boy had a map; though tattered and old, it was enough to mark the place that he journeyed to, the place that for years had harbored the only window, made by the ancient knife, into his own world. The map was a painful reminder of his former captivity; he had stolen it from the guards on his day of escape.

He didn't know what would be on the other side of the window; in fact, he had never seen it, never even been near one. He had merely heard the guards talking about it one dark, painful night in the dank cells of Dunestone, but it was the only thing that he had to go on. 

But there was another problem that haunted him as well. He had also heard the guards talking about how the boy with the ancient magic knife had come back and sealed up every window into every world. The guards had said that window was so well hidden, though, that he would never find it.

Regardless, Tobias knew that his only hope was that the window was still there and that he could find it. He must find a way into another world. There'd be no hope left if he could not.

The day after he and Aerotsierma had hidden in the dune-cave, Tobias dragged himself painfully to the nearest village, Shorewell, a tiny out-of-the-way thorp, to get help. He had passed out in the middle of the street; he awoke hours later to cries of "Poor child! What ever happened to you?" They took him in, having no idea of what he was, healing his wounds the best that they could. They did not even think to suspect of what he was, and the power he held, because Tobias's only sign that he was what he was had been skillfully covered up. Although he was tempted to, he did not probe their minds as he often did for information of any sort. These simple, oblivious folk were too kind, too selfless for him to infringe upon their very thoughts. Plus, he was far too tired. 

He stayed there for a week, regaining his strength, Aerotsierma curled on his chest or near his side as he lay in the hospital bed. When he was sufficiently healed, he tried to pay the kind people in the few gold coins he had, but they refused. This is what I am journeying for, Tobias thought as he left the village that day. I have to bring down Dunestone for the people such as these, whom there should be more of in this world. He'll come for them, eventually, too. It's not just our kind he's seeking to remove and tame.

Although his body was for the most part healed, upon his mind there had been scars torn that would never be removed. 

He tried to subdue them, but every so often he couldn't fight the onslaught of horror and near-delirium that would overtake him, always in the depth of night. Far more vivid than dreams. Flashbacks. 

And so Tobias traveled, finally having covered the desert regions and entering the countryside that he liked so much more. On the first night of his third week of traveling, he sought refuge from a rainstorm in an abandoned barn.

He and his dæmon fled to the loft, which was covered in hay. "It's not too cold in here, is it, Aero?" he asked as he rifled through his meager possessions and removed a tattered, dirty old blanket.

"Nah. It's a summer rain, anyway. Light and not too cool. Rare this time of year. We have hay to sleep in, anyway."

Tobias's rucksack contained very little other than his blanket: a canteen of water, a small first aid kit, an all-metal switchblade, a container of food, and a single change of clothing. Now he removed a can of soup and his switchblade, sliced a hole into the can, and ate it cold.

Then he huddled into the straw and his blanket as his dæmon curled beside him, drifting off to sleep, awaiting the graphic flashback dream that he knew would follow.

****

*

Tobias listened intently through the spattering rain to the voices just outside his cell. He had to urge his family to be quiet so that he could hear properly, but there was little to say or do anyway, so it wasn't hard to get them to hush. It was Breyman, the head Sniper, and Sidney Dune, the Tyrant Emperor of Dunestone.

"The torture and slave-driving is obviously not working, sir. We have to resort to another plan if you want them to submit their powers to you."

"As much as I hate to admit it, Breyman, you're right. It should be very simple. They _will_ give their powers to me when I am through. Execute one a day until they decide to submit."

Fear struck into Tobias's heart. Execute one every day? Tobias quivered in dread when his own cell door creaked open. Breyman, the tall head Sniper, marched in alone, looked around, and sneered devilishly when his gaze fell on Tobias's mother, father, and younger sister, shackled as always to the wall, cringing away from the man as he came closer, withdrawing a large key.

"I suppose I'll carry it out as soon as possible. . .no sense in not starting with the nearest cell. . ."

Tobias screamed in horror as Breyman latched his huge hand around his little sister's throat, holding her still so that he could unlock her shackles. His mother began sobbing and his father shouting, but his sister did nothing, only sat rigid in horror. His family's dæmons whirled around and around in panic, his little sister's changing rapidly, flick-flick-flick, his father's beagle attacking Breyman's wolf in her terror and confusion. The wolf snarled and smacked the smaller dæmon to the stone ground as Tobias's father arched his back in the pain of it. His mother's white duck flew at the wolf, but she grasped his long neck with her jaws, causing the woman to sob in fear and pain.

Tobias held his own dæmon close, feeling her rapid heartbeat, feeling her thoughts as she longed to attack Breyman's dæmon as well, but Tobias thought back to her, no, no, it will do no good, you'll get hurt for nothing. It's too late; there's nothing we can do.

Breyman hauled the young girl up by her neck; that was when she began screaming and gasping, kicking and hitting out. Her dæmon was insane, changing to a bird, a tiger, a weasel, a cat, flying and running in inane patterns across the cell floor, until finally Breyman snarled at him and reached down, grasping him tight in one hand as he fluttered as a goldfinch. The young girl gasped in shock at the foreign touch, squirming and pleading to let him go, stop hurting him.

Breyman hauled her from the cell and slammed the heavy door behind him.

It only took several minutes. Sobbing, Tobias dipped his mind into that of Breyman, following his thoughts until he carried the shrieking girl into a tiny room and picked up a heavy axe. He kicked her into a corner, and then Tobias removed himself from Breyman's mind, turning toward his sibling.

He put himself into his sister's mind, feeling her terror, giving her all the memories of happiness that he stored within his mind. _It's okay, Sal, I'm here with you until the end, forever. I love you, Sal, I love you. . ._

But he couldn't stand the pain of it, couldn't stand the shrieking cries of terror, couldn't stand it, and so he withdrew.

Then the young girl began screaming at the top of her lungs, so loud that it seemed as if the whole fortress could hear her, and as hideous as it was, Tobias pleaded silently for it to continue. For as long as she kept screaming, Tobias knew that she was still alive.

His mother and father held each other close, heaving with silent sobs as they listened, unable to block the shrieking cries of their daughter from their ears. The noise was full of pain and hideous grief, but the most painful sound of all was the silence that put an abrupt end to the scream.

It was at that moment, shaking through the tears, that Tobias made his decision. He would kill the Tyrant. The grief he felt warped suddenly into vicious, murderous hate, and he roared his anger out loud, throwing himself at the cell door, bellowing with rage that he had never felt before. His parents shrunk back against the wall in sudden fear for their seemingly insane son, who pounded at the door until his fists were raw and bloody, screaming his hatred all the while.

"I'll kill you! Damn your soul, Sidney Dune, damn you to hell and back, you fucking piece of shit! I'll carry your soul to hellgates, I'll kill you with my bare hands! I want your blood on my hands forever, I want to tear out your heart with them! Let me go, damn it, _let me go!"_

His father had wrapped his arms around his delirious son and pulled him gently back to his straw bedding. Tobias fought briefly, but then collapsed, sobbing the tears of hatred and grief into his dæmon's soft fur.

*

Tobias woke up bloody and sobbing to the sound of his dæmon whispering urgently, "Wake up Tobias, wake up!"

Shaking and sobbing, he sat up, staring at the blood on his hands, feeling the wound on his forehead that he had made in his sleep.

The headband that he wore to hide his mark was laying next to him on the bed of straw, soaked completely through with blood. Tobias knew why he had been tearing at his forehead. His mark was there. Every one of his kind had been given a scar by the blade of the Tyrant Dune himself, a Roman Numeral to keep them accounted for. Although for the most part his light blonde hair covered the scar, he still had worn his headband to cover it ever since he escaped, since no commoners could see it or they would know what he was.

In his sleep he had tore at the mark so violently that the old wound had opened up again, pouring blood forth onto everything. Even the straw around him was red. He just laid there, sobbing, letting it bleed, not caring. Aerotsierma licked the wound the best she could, as Tobias would do nothing to help himself.

He was number thirteen. Tobias was ashamed always at the irony of the XIII on his forehead, for it was the unlucky number, and he was the only survivor out of all of his people.

When the bleeding had finally stopped, Tobias cried himself to sleep once more, as more horrible dreams opened inside his fevered mind.


	3. The Test

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(Author's note: this chapter is in flashback form. All of it. Sorry, but I had to get this across--and the particular flashback isn't even done yet. . .and it doesn't really clear up a thing, either. That will be coming later, but I didn't want to make it too long or no one would read it! Review please!)

****

CHAPER THREE--The Test

Tobias grinned at his friend Matt across the room and tossed the wadded-up piece of paper over the heads of the rest of the students. Matt grinned back and raised up his hands to catch the oncoming wad, but in mid-arc it was snatched out of the air by a larger, more wrinkled hand.

Mr. Stevens was the meanest teacher in all of Highpoint Advanced Academy, and Tobias's fourth grade class resented having him as their teacher. His dæmon was no more amiable; the wicked looking crow perched infernally upon the overhead projector, defiantly eyeing the students' dæmons who grimaced and made faces at her depending. Glaring terribly, Mr. Stevens uncrumpled the piece of paper, muttering, "How many times have I told you little pests not to pass notes!" Tobias didn't care; he was bored in class anyway, although he dare not say so. They had tried to move him up years ago, but he barely avoided it by purposely doing badly on the achievement test; the last thing he wanted was to leave all his friends. Now, however, he was wishing whimsically that he had accepted the offer, as he despised Mr. Stevens with a passion.

While the teacher was reading aloud the note to the class (which contained quite a bit of graphic thoughts about him) Tobias yawned sleepily as he submerged his mind into Mr. Stevens's, but quickly withdrew as he found that the teacher was not thinking about the note, but about a particular lady friend whom he apparently thought horrid thoughts about. So Tobias engaged in dipping his mind into several of his fellow students' until Mr. Stevens's sharp voice cut through the mounting giggles of the class due to the note he had just stopped reading. 

"Tobias Bergen! This is absolutely disgraceful! And this is the _last _time I'm warning you. It's time for you to visit the office, you little punk!"

Tobias rolled his eyes and stood up, stretching exaggeratedly. His own dæmon, who was presently in the shape of a cat, uncurled and hissed silently at the scowling crow dæmon. Tobias yawned and blinked, smirking slightly, at the glaring teacher. "Did you say something, Mr. Stevens? I must have dozed off there for a second."

His ruddy face flushed with anger, he grabbed the boy by the shoulders and pushed him none-too-gently through the door. Without saying a word, he slammed it shut and returned to class. 

Tobias found himself in the empty hallway with Aerotsierma, who changed to a sparrow and lit on his shoulder. "Haha!" she giggled as Tobias ambled down the hall. "You sure showed him. So are you really gonna go to the office, or not?"

Strolling through the empty steel-and-plastic halls, Tobias chortled, "Yeah right. Who cares?"

So Tobias and his dæmon merely strolled down the winding hallways of the huge academy. Although he was only ten years old, Tobias knew almost the entire school very well by heart. And it was indeed very large--grades one up through twelve with hundreds of students per grade. It was a school for advanced children--only the smartest were allowed to enter, and the tuition was quite high.

They were strolling down the hallway near the twelfth grade physics classrooms when Tobias noticed that one of the classroom doors was ajar and the lights were off. "Hey, Aero, this looks like fun," he whispered, slipping into the classroom. Aero became a bat and fluttered into the darkness.

Aero presently informed Tobias that the room was, in fact, empty, so he switched on the light and closed the door.

"I've never been in this classroom before," he said, looking around. He had, in fact, sneaked around the school so much that he had been in most classrooms.

Aerotsierma transformed into a weasel and leapt around the room, sneaking into small corners and disappearing under the desk. Tobias smiled defiantly to himself as he went about his rebellious way, going through the desk drawers and was just heading across the room to the filing cabinet when the blackboard caught his attention and he stopped, gazing up at the mighty equation that filled half of the huge board.

He stood there for a few minutes in silence. It had obviously been put there for someone to figure out, as there was a scribbling mention of extra credit near the top, and from the look of the chalk, it had been there for quite a while. No one had figured it out yet.

Finally his dæmon fluttered over as a kestrel and perched upon his shoulder. "What is THAT?" she asked, but Tobias, deeply engrossed, said nothing.

Several minutes went by in silence, the analogue clock upon the wall ticking out the seconds, seeming so loud that it echoed. At long last he stepped forward, picking up a new stick of chalk and resting his hand tentatively against the slate. "I. . ." he began, as the kestrel upon his shoulder transformed into one of her favorite forms, the red fox, and sat by his side, gazing up at him in question. He continued. "I think I might know how to do this."

Aerotsierma leapt onto the teacher's swivel chair and curled up, watching him curiously. "You actually know how to make sense of that big maze of numbers and letters?" Tobias fiddled with the chalk and muttered, "Yeah. . .I think I actually might. At first it didn't make any sense. . .but I think I kinda get it. . ."

And so he set to work, scribbling out another huge set of letters, numbers and symbols on the empty side of the board. He paused from time to time, squinting at his numbers; once or twice he would erase a little bit and put something different in its place. After a half an hour he erupted into a coughing fit, having inhaled a bit of chalk dust, and was covered in it as well. He ran out of chalk eventually and had to scrounge around the classroom for a new piece, and then another, and then a third.

An hour and a half had passed when finally Tobias breathed a heavy sigh and sat down hard on the floor, leaning his head against the wall and closing his eyes. He was covered with white chalk dust and his hand felt like it was going to fall off from cramping. Aero climbed into his lap and said, "Are you. . .finished?" Tobias stood up and was about to reply when suddenly he jumped in fright as the door creaked open.

Tobias recognized the young professor who entered as someone he had seen in the halls before but never spoken to. Professor O'Brian, was it? Tobias considered him to be a fairly decent guy, as teachers go, from what he had heard. His lynx dæmon padded silently from behind him and sat, licking her paw stoically. "Hey. . .what are you doing in here, kid? You didn't mess anything up, did you? Whose class are you in?"

Tobias opened his mouth to speak, a little scared now, but no words came forth. Just as well, because at that moment Professor O'Brian's eyes moved to the blackboard behind Tobias. He stared for a moment, then took off his glasses, squinted through them, and replaced them. "What the bloody hell. . ." he muttered in disbelief.

Tobias gathered up Aerotsierma, who, as a bobcat, was inspecting the professor's dæmon, and rushed toward the door, stammering, "I--I'm sorry, professor sir, I didn't mean. . ."

But O'Brian said nothing, merely took a few more steps slowly toward the board and stared at it in open-mouthed disbelief. "You. . .surely YOU didn't do this, did you, kid?"

Tobias shrugged, tugged on the doorknob. . .but it was locked. "Um. . .yes sir, I. . .I'm sorry. . ."

The professor moved his finger through the air along each line of the rather lengthy answer Tobias had written. It took him several minutes but at last he turned to the young boy and murmured, "It's right. . .it's completely right. . .this is incredible. . .how old are you, boy?"

Tobias shrugged again. "Ten."

The teacher shook his head in wonder. "How ever did you learn this? Did you already know it? Memorize it or something?"

The boy shook his head. "No sir. I just came in here. . .uh. . .for whatever reason, and I saw it, and I worked through it and I guess it just kind of came to me. I've been here since. . .around noon, I guess."

Professor O'Brian glanced at his watch. He took a step closer to Tobias. "You mean to tell me," he began, his voice sounding less friendly now, "that a ten-year-old boy sneaked into my classroom and completed the same equation in an hour and a half that took a renowned team of physicists years to prove?"

But Tobias's agile mind was already several steps ahead, and he realized, far too late, the mess he had gotten himself into and the danger that loomed on the horizon. "I gotta get back to class now. . .old Stevens is gonna be really mad at me. . .they're probably looking for me already. . ."

For a moment the young professor's demeanor changed. "You mean that you were skipping class?" Tobias winced, but realized now, with panic rising, that this was the least of his problems. "Well, yeah, kinda."

But O'Brian gazed up at the chalkboard and realized that gee, he didn't care either. He put a hand to his forehead and muttered, "Ugh. . .I gotta lie down. . ."

Finally the professor stood again, adjusted his glasses, and took hold of Tobias firmly by the arm so that he couldn't escape as he unlocked the door. "This is serious, boy. We need to take you for testing RIGHT NOW."

And so Tobias and his dæmon sat on the small bench outside the principal's office, listening to the voices from within.

"I tell you, the boy solved the Wagner-Raven theorem equation just now! I put that damn thing up for extra credit for my advanced physics class! He said it took him like an hour and a half!"

Tobias could hear a brief rustling of papers, and then the principal's voice. "Whatever you say, O'Brian. You do know what this may mean, eh? I suppose that we should have him tested anyway, hmm?"

"We should most definitely have him tested! As soon as possible!"

"Now will do."

The door opened and Principal Grey gently ushered Tobias into his rather spacious office, his snowy owl dæmon watching intently with large amber eyes from his desk. Aerotsierma changed to a lizard and disappeared into Tobias's jacket pocket. Grey didn't talk at all with Tobias, merely pointing to his personal computer where a test program was already opened.

Tobias looked questioningly at Professor O'Brian, who merely shrugged, looking a little more apprehensive now. Tobias, totally bewildered, sat down at the computer chair and stared at the screen, although his mind was elsewhere. Inside Professor O'Brian's, actually. The professor was highly worried at the moment, thinking, I like Tobias; he's a good kid. I hope he doesn't have. . .

But at that moment his mind was yanked back in to reality as the principal said, "Tobias, you have until this time tomorrow to complete this test. It is so important that you may not move from this room during the whole twenty four hours. We will contact your parents; you may sleep in here, but there are surveillance cameras, so don't do anything bad. We will leave you alone now."

Tobias's mind was reeling. Aero climbed onto his lap as an ermine and muttered, "What the hell was that all about?" Tobias shook his head. "They're too far out of range for me to read their minds. Something's going on, and I don't like it."

Aero replied, "What are you going to do?"

Tobias stared resolutely at the computer screen, where quite a few test questions had appeared. "I'm going to purposely fail, of course. They're not going to try and move me up again. Haven't they learned yet?"

And so Tobias set about promptly failing the test, not knowing the horrible trap he was putting himself and his family in as he did so.


	4. Worse Than Death

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(Author's note: This chapter still is in the same flashback as the last chapter and will explain how and why Tobias and his family were forced into captivity. More PG-13 for language and violence. People seem to like that stuff.)

****

CHAPTER FOUR--Worse Than Death

Tobias finished the test around three o'clock that morning. Food and drink was available to him in the principal's personal refrigerator, and he was allowed to use his personal bathroom as well. The test was long and incredibly hard, and although Tobias easily knew most of the answers, he deliberately did less than average. 

He resented the fact that he wasn't allowed to leave or to have any contact with anyone until around three o'clock the next day. What would he do in the small office until that time came? The principal had books, but not many. No telephone, no Internet, nothing interesting. 

That night when he slept (on the principal's personal couch) he awoke before dawn to faint noises outside the door. He turned sleepily over on the couch and stood, pawing the last remnants of sleep from his eyes. Aerotsierma, cat formed, stretched and yawned on the floor, whispering, "What is it, Tobias?"

Tobias inched silently toward the door, murmuring, "I don't know, Aero . . . I can't reach their minds yet…"

But at last he could hear the voices from outside the door. It was Principal Grey and Professor O'Brian, conversing with a third voice that Tobias didn't know.

"The results of the test were wired through. He did very poorly."

"He _had _to have faked it. That child is a genius, a prodigy; you must believe me!"  


"Don't be a fool, O'Brian. There's no denying what he is now that the test results have come."

"No! I can't believe that. It just can't be true!"  


"When he was writing the answer to that equation, weren't you right outside the door?"

"I was for a while. . .I was talking to Ms. Matthews for at least a half an hour. . ."

"Then couldn't the boy's mind have reached yours through that distance?"

"I guess so, but still. . ."  


"If he really does have the Forthsight, then he may be able to put up quite a fight. Do you have your weapon, Breyman?"

"Of course I do, Grey. I'm not a fool."

Tobias didn't even have time to panic before the door burst open and he found himself staring down the barrel of Breyman's sniper rifle. The young boy let out a gasp of fear and shock, but he did have an advantage over his present adversaries. 

He had the Forthsight. 

He focused his mind with all his might in an effort to disrupt Breyman's thoughts. He was only ten, therefore he wasn't very trained in the ways of Forthsight, but he did have enough experience to plant a thought in the man's mind that didn't belong there. The thought was meant to confuse him more than harm him. It was a simple thought that made him question why he wanted to capture Tobias.

Breyman faltered for just a moment. But a moment was enough for the quick-footed Tobias; he skidded past the three men and bolted down a dark hallway of Highpoint Advanced Academy, Aerotsierma winging overhead as a kestrel.

But soon Breyman snapped out of it and his wolf dæmon snarled savagely, launching after the boy. But Tobias was faster than Breyman, and soon the Sniper's dæmon was straining too much against their link, and so slowed.

Tobias ran as fast as he could in no particular direction, his heart beating frantically in his chest, cursing himself silently for the fool he had been. Utter, utter fool! He was suddenly overcome by complete self-loathing; he choked on the sobs of rage that rose in his throat as he ran.

But terror soon overcame the anger, and he ran onward, hearing Grey shout now far behind him, "Get him, dammit!" and O'Brian crying, "No! It isn't true! Run, Tobias, they'll kill you, they'll--aaarrrggghh!"

Tobias almost slowed at the professor's painful cry, but he mustn't let them catch him! He could hear the wolf behind him, not too far now, snarling and slavering as she drew nearer.

But he had another advantage as well. His dæmon could still change, and theirs could not. Aerotsierma heard his panicked thoughts and immediately transformed into a Bengal tiger. She fell from the air and hit the ground on all fours, snarling into the face of the wolf.

Breyman's dæmon whimpered as a huge claw-filled tiger paw caught her throat. Breyman cried out and stumbled, but the wolf tore open Aerotsierma's shoulder with wicked canine teeth. A terrific dæmon fight ensued, with Aerotsierma changing flick-flick-flick, from her most powerful forms, tiger-lion-rhino-leopard, flick-flick-flick.

And she was winning. Breyman's dæmon slumped to the floor, bloodied, and Breyman collapsed on the floor next to her, sobbing from the pain that wrenched his soul. But Aero wasn't unhurt either. Tobias stumbled several times, still running all-out, having long since strained the link when his own dæmon was fighting. But now she flew back to him and nestled into his arms as an ermine once more.

Far behind him, he heard Grey scream, "Get up, Breyman, damn it!" accompanied by several thuds as the principal kicked the Sniper in the side. Gasping, he sat up, holding his dæmon, roaring at Grey, "Fuck off!"

So then Grey snatched his gun and took off after Tobias down the dark halls.

But O'Brian had gotten to his feet somehow and was racing along after the Principal, screaming, "I quit, Grey! How can you do this? What the hell is happening? Tobias! Grey, damn you! You can take your system and shove it up your--"

But as he threw himself at the principal, the crazed man spun around and fired the rifle at his former underling. O'Brian's lynx dæmon was in a mid-air leap towards Grey's owl when she vanished.

Breathing heavily, Grey limped back to Breyman, who was just getting to his feet. He shoved the rifle back into his hands, breathing into his face, "You get that boy."

Breyman snarled after him, "I'm not afraid of you, Grey. I don't give a damn if I fail a bastard like you. It's Sidney Dune who I work for, and it's he and only he that I'm afraid of failing to."

With that, he took off once more after Tobias.

Tobias could run no more. His mind was in a crazed, delirious state, and only his Forthsight kept him from being caught by Breyman, because he could read his mind and know where he was going next. But after what seemed to be hours of mindless chasing, Tobias became completely exhausted (using the Forthsight for sustained periods of time is very tiring) and at last forgot to probe his chaser's mind. Before he knew it, he rounded a corner and came face to face with a snarling black wolf.

Breyman grabbed him by the back of the neck and grinned as he raised the gun. Tobias whimpered once, then everything went black.

*

The next few days for Tobias were nothing but a blur. Drifting half out of consciousness and half in, painful thoughts plagued his mind night and day as he strove to awaken completely. Breyman had hit him in the head extremely hard with the butt of his gun, giving him a near concussion. Once when Tobias was awake, though deliriously so, he saw the fear stricken faces of his parents and little sister. Great grief and self-loathing enveloped him, as he knew it was his fault and only his fault for his family's capture.

Rule number one when he was a young child had been to never, ever reveal that he had the Forthsight. If he did, it would mean death. Or possibly worse. Tobias could never imagine what was worse than death.

So he cursed himself night and day as he lay in a tiny cell with his family, hovering in and out of consciousness. He barely remembered the day when he was dragged from his cell to have his number carved into his forehead by the sword of the Tyrant. He never even saw his face, nor did he remember any pain. It was all hazy and foggy to him.

All he remembered were days and nights of pain and darkness, crying forlornly on his cell floor, his forehead bleeding, sobbing into the hay that served as bedding. I'm sorry, he'd say over and over again, pleading for forgiveness from his family, from God. Please, I'm sorry, I never meant for this to happen. It's all my fault. Please. I'm sorry.

Tobias's parents didn't blame him at all. In fact, his father told him that his boss at work was on the verge of finding out from him as well. It would've been inevitable that someone discovered the secret. 

But Tobias knew deep within his soul that it was all his fault, and he'd never forgive himself. _This shame, _he thought_, this horrible grief is worse than death._

*

When Tobias awoke, his eyes were dry. His dæmon uncurled on the hay and licked his face as he sat up, squinting at the sun that shone through a small hole in the barn roof.

"Morning already, Aero?" he said, stretching, giving no hint of the horrors he had been forced to relive inside his own fevered mind.

"Tobias, don't hide it from me. You've been dreaming again. I know you have. I can feel your dreams sometimes."

Tobias closed his eyes. "Every night, Aero. I don't know why. Is it my guilt? I know it's my fault that my family is dead. Why am I forced to relive the moments of my past that I'd most like to forget? We're free now. The first time we've been free in four years. Why is this happening? Why? I can't stand it. . ."

As Tobias prepared to leave again, he thought. How naïve I was back then when I thought that the grief and guilt I felt was worse than death. How horribly, terribly naïve. 

Being with your sister inside her own mind while she is killed is worse than death. Watching your mother as she screams for mercy even as her blood streams down her neck, writhing in the ultimate agony. Seeing your father fight them until he can stand no more, so full of bullet holes he is, and not being able to do anything at all. And worst of all, knowing that every drop of blood, every scream of pain, all of it, is your fault.

__

That is worse than death.


	5. Forthsight

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(Author's Note: This chapter ACTUALLY takes place in present tense (well . . . most of it, anyway)! Yay! This chapter is probably rated PG for not so much language and violence. *readers: awwwww. . . darn!*)

****

CHAPTER FIVE--Forthsight

The city of destination on Tobias's map was called Quell. He had never been there, nor did he know anyone who had. In addition, he had no idea where the window was located within the town. But he knew that it was his only hope, and so he must make an effort.

Weeks of basically uneventful countryside traveling passed. Tobias and his dæmon were good and practiced foragers, so they did not go hungry. It was late summer in the foothills, thus the weather was relatively warm, so they did not freeze.

They passed through many small villages, but Tobias never emerged into public unless he needed to replenish his supplies. He had rather not risk showing the scar upon his forehead that denoted what he was.

Little by little, his violent flashback dreams began to subside. Not entirely, though; Tobias was certain that a few of his memories would stick around forever inside his dreams. But when he was able to purge the thoughts from his head as he walked along the windy, dusty sunlit roads with his dæmon, he actually found himself harboring a shred of hope that he hadn't felt in many years. 

Almost a month had passed when he finally reached the city of Quell. It was larger than he had expected: many times more populous than every village he had passed through thus far. But even so, that particular part of the world was by far not the industrial area. Tobias's hometown was a huge technologically and industrially advanced city; Quell was a village compared to it.

Few motor vehicles passed on even fewer paved roads, none of which exceeded two lanes. Tobias saw many more people on foot or on bicycle. No hover-mags here at all, Tobias noted, though they were just about the only method of transportation where he was from. Shops lined the streets on both sides, and stray dogs passed through the streets.

Tobias found an inn and stayed the night for the first time in many weeks. He had gotten so used to sleeping under the stars that he felt quite claustrophobic when sleeping in a low-ceilinged room. 

The next day he checked out of the inn and immediately went to a tiny diner across the street for a meal as well as to begin his search for the window. When he arrived, he took a booth near the back and picked up a tattered paper menu.

Two ragged old men were talking and guffawing rather loudly in the booth across from Tobias's. They were the only other people in the diner aside from him, so Tobias figured that they were a good a place as any to begin seeking answers from. He knew that he could search their minds for the answer, but when he tried there was so much other trivial information that he knew it would be far easier to simply ask.

"Excuse me?" Tobias piped up rather meekly when the men had stopped laughing at a rather inappropriate joke long enough to get a word in edgeways. They looked over at him. One was heavyset with blonde stubble and a fat face, and the other had a neck the size of a barrel. Tobias knew that either of them could snap him in half like a twig.

"Whaddaya want, kid?"

The blonde one's dæmon, an equally heavyset beaver, twitched her nose at Aerotsierma, who lowered her eyes in submission. The beefy one's dæmon stared impassively at the fox as a grey wombat from the tabletop. 

Tobias cleared his throat polity and said, "Sirs, do either of you know anything about the window into another world that was left in this town?"

Beefy Neck whooped and slapped his thigh. "Yeh hear that, Mike? This kid's lookin' for the winder!"

Pudgy Face glared at his friend and growled, "I done heard 'im, numbskull. Naw, kid, that there winder's been all closed up goin' on . . . what, goin' on a year now. We 'uns all thought the knife bearer wouldn't find 'er, but 'e explained what was goin' on, and that it was necessarily to keep all the winders shut. Where yer been, kid? In a hole?"

Tobias narrowed his eyes briefly at the reference. More like a hellhole, he thought, but instead replied steadily, "No sir, I'm not from around here. I'm from a long ways off, and I don't get out much. Thank you anyway."

As he stood up to leave and then men returned to their conversation, Tobias searched the man's mind to make sure he wasn't lying, and when he found that he was indeed telling the truth, only then did he allow his heart to sink.

He scooped Aerotsierma up and left without eating. He wasn't hungry much now either. Once outside, he sat down on a bench and buried his face in his hands. "Oh Aero," he moaned helplessly. "There's nothing we can do now. You heard him. It's been closed for a year. I searched his mind just in case, and found that he was even there when the knife bearer closed the window. He saw it happen. It's hopeless."

His loving dæmon nuzzled his hand gently. "Tobias, are you sure that there's no other alternative? You're awfully smart, you know. Remember the equation you solved in fourth grade? What if we discovered some way to pass through the worlds?"

Tobias closed his eyes tight, squeezing tears out from under his eyelids. "That filthy equation was what got my family killed, Aero." Even as he said it he knew it was a lie. He knew that it was his reaction to the whole situation that had put him and his family in the danger.

"Anyway, Aero, we've been in captivity for years; I haven't practiced that sort of thing for years! I'm behind in education. It's totally impossible."

Aerotsierma knew he wasn't being honest with himself. She knew that he could teach himself all his years of lost schooling in just a few weeks, probably. She remembered how he had scratched equations upon the dirt floor of the cell with a stick in Dunestone. But that only lasted for several months, to pass the time, then he stopped. He didn't care anymore. 

So instead of reminding him of this, his dæmon said, "Then maybe there's something else. Something inside of you, even. There has to be some way, Tobias. We can't give up yet. We can't!"

For some reason what his dæmon had said stuck in his head until he lay down to sleep at the inn that night. It would be his last day in Quell before he left. Where to, he did not know. But now that he knew the window was closed, he saw no reason to stay there any longer.

But when he dreamed that night, it wasn't the horrors of the past that surfaced in his mind, but of a conversation with his father many years ago, just several months of captivity in Dunestone.

*

"Dad . . . I've wanted to ask you for a while now. I know we've never really talked about it before, it had never really come up, but I really want to know. The whole Forthsight thing. What exactly is it for?"

His father had closed his eyes as if in resignation, briefly touching the Roman numeral twelve scar on his forehead. After a moment he spoke.

"The Forthsight is a wonderful gift and a terrible curse, my son. It is extremely rare in occurrence, and usually passed through genes, but ours is one of the only families where the Forthsight is present in all members. There are only about one hundred of us in the world, I'm told.

"There are several ancient prophecies that go along with it. One says that the Forthsight will be the fall of civilization. Another says that it will be the rebirth of it. And yet another says that it will be both . . ." A strange look entered his father's eyes, and Tobias was beginning to regret having asked the apparently troubling question.

He continued. "But anyway, most children discover that they have the Forthsight before their dæmon settles. You discovered yours much earlier than many children, probably because of your intellect. Usually children find that they are able to 'hear' other people's thoughts. That is always the first step. However, there is a lot more to the Forthsight than that. Everybody with the Forthsight has their own special gift, which is usually not discovered until your dæmon has been settled for at least several years. Your mother is able to heal, as you know, and I can move objects with my mind. I'm sure that you haven't noticed it yet, but there is some sort of block in this place that prevents any type of Forthsight uses outside of hearing people's thoughts. I cannot move things with my mind, and your mother cannot heal.

"The one thing concurrent in all of the ancient prophecies, however, is that a great disaster will strike upon the people of the Forthsight, and the One with a very special gift will restore our people."

His father grew silent. Presently Tobias asked quietly, "What gift is this, dad?"

"The gift to make just about anything happen if you will it enough."

Tobias didn't understand exactly, as his 'gift' had not surfaced yet, but he took his father's word for it. And what else had his dad said? A great disaster will strike? A great shudder passed through his body. And then he awoke.

*

Tobias's eyes stung with tears when he awoke, and his pillow was wet. For some reason he was incredibly exhausted upon waking, instead of refreshed as one usually is when emerging from sleep. It was completely dark in the inn room, and he fumbled for the bedside lamp. He couldn't find it and cursed quietly. Aero, still-half asleep, nuzzled his side gently. 

Suddenly a bizarre sensation passed through his body and a cool breeze blew as if from out of nowhere, ruffling his hair and tingling the unshed tears in his eyes. He knew that he had closed the windows before going to bed. And the air that passed through was cold and damp; it had been warm and dry outside when he went to bed, with no sign of approaching rain.

A distant boom of thunder reached Tobias's ears. In the darkness he fumbled around until he was on his feet and groped through the black room to the window, which he blindly pushed open, sticking his head out. The outside air, however, was warm and dry.

"What the hell?" he said aloud.

Aero padded across the room and nudged his leg. "Tobias, what's the matter? Where's that cold air coming from? There are no vents in here!"

"I know, Aero," he murmured, panic rising inexplicably as he fumbled desperately for the light. Finally he found it, and the room was instantly flooded with light.

Tobias stared openmouthed at the space above his bed. There was a bizarre and rather irregular shape hovering there, like a picture cut out and stuck in the air. The picture seemed to be of dark hills, viewed only from the light of his room, with a few patches of snow, large water droplets falling sparsely accompanied by distant rolls of thunder. Damp wind blew through, chilling Tobias's face.

At first he thought that he was dreaming, then he though that he had gone insane after pinching himself. Tentatively, he placed a hand through the picture, not expecting but wildly hoping for it to actually go through. It did. He reached through the 'picture' and touched the damp grass. It was real.

He remembered his dream. He felt about ready to pass out, and turned to Aero, speechless. Finally he forced himself to smile wryly, and spoke to his dæmon.

"Aerotsierma . . . we made a window."

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(Another Author's Note: Oooh . . . the plot thickens! I'm sure that just about everyone kind of expected Tobias to make his own window ever since the beginning of this chapter, but trust me, in the next few chapters there'll be a major plot twist happening! Please keep reading! I'll have Chapter Six up quite soon. Review please!)


	6. One Night's Horrors

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(Author's Note: Oh hell, I dunno, not too much to say this time around. I'm sure everyone is tired of the flashbacks for now so I'll leave those out for a while! Even though some things obviously still need to be cleared up, i.e. Tobias's final escape, his parent's death, why and how Dune captured the Forthsight people . . . etc. Eh, I'll get around to it. This chapter has some violence, so, I dunno, PG-13 I guess. Anyway, R/R, eh, enjoy.)

****

CHAPTER SIX--One Night's Horrors

Tobias grinned almost insanely at his dæmon, whose eyes flickered in the dim light. Tobias rifled briefly through his bag, taking only his switchblade. But as he rifled through his bag, he noticed something else that he hadn't seen in a very long time, buried beneath everything else, crumpled and disheveled.

He picked it up, staring at it intently. It was a photograph, taken long ago, of a girl. Aero bounced around his feet, saying, "Toby, what're you waiting for? Come on, let's go!"

Tobias murmured, "Hold on a sec." He remembered who that was, even though he hadn't thought about her in ages. His old childhood friend Iris, who had gone to school with him and was the same age. They had been good friends before their capture, but even inside Dunestone they remained best friends, talking constantly in one another's minds. But when Tobias was around eleven, she had been hauled off for execution, and he had never heard her name spoken since.

He remembered how long he grieved about her death, and found that the only way he could stop the pain was to make himself never think about it, and so he never did. He had stayed with her in her mind until she got out of reach with him . . . just as he had with his sister, who had been executed only a few months before. 

He shook away the thoughts of sadness that rose within him again, and turned to the problem of the window which hovered in the air. Aero was still talking as he crawled through the hole in space, slipping his knife into his pajama pocket.

Aerotsierma followed him through, asking all the while, "Tobias? What just happened? How did you do that? Is that your gift? Making a hole through the worlds?"

Her human shrugged, murmuring, "I dunno, Aero . . . I just wanted it to happen, more than anything . . . and I guess that somehow, it did." Tobias emerged into the chilly darkness, his dæmon poised and ready behind him, sniffing the air for any scent of danger, or for that matter, life of any sort. As her human looked around at the scenery cautiously, Aerotsierma whispered, "Tobias, I smell something very faint . . . and very strange . . ."

Tobias didn't respond immediately, but glanced around in the darkness. It was very cold, and he was merely in his pajamas, and it was mostly too dark for him to see well. He shivered in the frigid wind and said, "I have no idea what world we've busted into . . . it's not like I actually _chose_ or anything . . . it just happened."

His dæmon paused at the sound of a very faint rustling, but concluded that it was merely the wind. "I know, Toby . . . there's supposed to be thousands upon thousands of worlds . . . we could be in any random one."

Tobias gazed up, hoping to find a familiar view of the night sky star pattern, but instead found only the opaque darkness of nighttime clouds. So he began to hike up to the top of the hill, keeping his eyes out for any sign of life, avoiding the patches of snow. 

Suddenly the breath was torn from him in a sudden gasp as a large dark figure hit him hard. Aero growled, but then squeaked in confusion, as the figure (which was human) had no dæmon.

Tobias disentangled himself from the human and stood up quickly, demanding, "Hey! Watch where you're going! Who are you, anyway?"

Tobias's assailant stood up, panting heavily, leaning in close enough so that Tobias could see his face by the dim light. It was a man with long hair and a heavy beard, dressed mostly in black, with a primitive-looking weapon clutched in one hand. Tobias quickly searched his mind before he had a chance to respond. His name was Hoomar, and he was running, quite panicked, from some sort of . . . monster?

Then he spoke, still panting, quickly and highly distraught in a very foreign language that Tobias didn't recognize. Tobias shook his head briefly, and instead went through his mind more in depth. The monster terrorized his people quite often, and was huge, white, bristly, with large teeth . . . from the looks of his thoughts and memories, Tobias concluded that this world had no, or little, technology of any sort. They seemed to live almost primitively, in a village of thatched houses. They were a peaceful bunch, of farming and agriculture, but the monster came often to the village and killed many before it left.

Upon closer notice, Tobias could see that the man's clothing were actually skins that seemed to be dyed black. But the fact that he had no dæmon was what sent the young boy's mind reeling . . . how could anyone survive without a dæmon?

But Tobias quickly searched his mind for this answer, and concluded something strange: the man felt no loss at not having a dæmon, in fact, he did seem to really have a dæmon, it was just . . . inside of him?

This puzzled Tobias, but there was no time for that. The man was jumping up and down, shouting something in a fearful voice, pointing down the hill. He grabbed Tobias's arm and ran. 

Tobias pulled away and ran himself, side by side to the primitive man. He chanced a look over his shoulder, and a horrifying sight ensued. A gigantic beast had appeared over the summit of the hill, huge and white and shaggy, like an overgrown polar bear gone horribly wrong. It had scaly hands and feet with vicious, serrated claws on all toes. Its tail was also scaly, like a huge, colossal lizard or dinosaur. 

But the scariest part of all had to be the teeth: longer than Tobias's arm, serrated, sabers. The beast flattened its large, catlike ears flat against its head and roared, narrowing its red-rimmed eyes in an almost sentient expression of anger.

Tobias, noticing this, searched its mind even as he ran in panic, discovering that the sentience was not there, only the primordial instincts of a killing-crazed beast.

Soon the madly running pair encountered two other skin-clad club-wavers, who shouted guttural cries and hurled spears at the beast. One was snatched out of midair by the behemoth, who snapped in clean in half with its saber teeth, and the other hit home, burying itself in the snowy white flank.

The beast roared a mind-shaking bellow, and tore the spear out with its teeth. Apparently unhurt in the least little bit, the beast turned on the two men and charged.

So the four of them together ran, but Tobias could feel the beast advancing quite quickly, until finally the four runners ground to a halt, panting, as they reached the edge of the forest. The club-equipped man, Hoomar, bellowed at the beast and tried to scare it away, but Tobias could've sworn that the monster was grinning as it advanced upon its meal slowly. It flicked out its massively long scaly tail, whipping the club out of the man's hand and sending it spinning away. 

Tobias's mind was going insane. Was he going to die? His power of reading minds was useless now, and he knew there was nothing he could do. Whimpering, Aerotsierma leapt into his arms, pressing her small quaking body against his chest.

The beast made one last mighty leap, opening its colossal jaws wide, and descended upon one of the men that had thrown the spears. 

He only had time to scream once before his cries were engulfed in the jaws of the beast. It took his head first, and he was still screaming when the jaws contracted, sending streams of blood cascading down his animal-skin clad body. He was still screaming, struggling terribly, his comrades at a complete loss, weaponless and unable to do anything. Tobias thought of his pocketed switchblade, but knew that if he tried to use it he'd be eaten as well.

So as he was pressed up against a rather large tree, he was forced to stand and witness the horrors before him as the great white beast devoured the man. Blood sprayed all around, coating Tobias and his newfound comrades. Soon the man's struggling stopped, and his body became limp as it dangled, torso down, from the beast's mouth. Then the beast raised its head, allowing the body to slide backwards all the way into its mouth. It chomped steadily, hot organs dripping from its jowls, its entire white face stained a deep red. 

Finally it crunched into bone, causing shards of it to ricochet off of the tree trunks that they stood around. When at last there was no more left, Tobias found himself far too petrified to move a muscle, a scream bubbling in his throat but unable to get past his lips. When the creature belched and a shattered skull came up, Tobias felt bile rising in his throat instead, which did manage to get all the way up.

He retched, and at that moment a thought so obvious that it made his head whirl entered his mind, and he focused all his energy and Forthsight power to open a window back into his own world.

The dark sky opened up before him, and he could see trees and a dirt road before him. He grabbed the nearest man and shoved him through, using his mind to tell the other to follow. 

Once on the other side, he sealed up the hole quickly with his mind. He was exhausted from the effort, and lay gasping in the dirt road, regaining his breath and composure. Aero curled at his side, panting.

When Tobias regained himself, he led the two men back near the inn, then opened another hole into their world, led them through, then sealed it up. He was utterly, utterly exhausted, and feeling quite sick from his close encounter with death and his witness of it. He trudged wearily up to his room in the inn, sealed up the window, and collapsed, defeated, into his bed. Aerotsierma yawned and curled up next to him. Forgetting the night's gruesome events, the two drifted off into a blessedly dreamless sleep.


	7. Companion

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(Author's Note: Um…not a whole lot to say this time…just read!)

****

CHAPTER SEVEN--Companion

When the sun began to spread its fingers of soft morning light over the horizon, Tobias was already awake, lying in his bed thinking. One question wound itself around and around in his mind: How did he specify what world he wanted to enter?

Or less precisely, was it even within his power to _choose_ what world he wanted to enter? Or was it instead a completely random and arbitrary process that he could not harness and control? He knew that he had much to learn about his mysterious abilities, and the only way to find out was to give it a shot.

He yawned and stretched, slowly getting out of bed and gathering his stuff. After taking a quick shower, he repacked his possessions and headed out the door. He checked out at the front desk and appeared into the faint morning sunlight with Aerotsierma perched upon his shoulders. 

"Aren't we leaving today?" Aero asked, wrapping her tail around the neck of her human. Tobias nodded and said, "Yeah, but let's eat first. Then I want to try and figure out some way to choose which world to travel into."

As he walked across the street to the diner he had previously visited, his dæmon was struck with a sudden idea. "Hey Toby, why don't we just find a world that we like and just . . . you know, stay there? And never come back? Now that everyone we knew is dead and gone . . . "

But Aerotsierma knew the answer to that; she could feel the hatred and anger that rose in Tobias's mind. "I thought of that too . . . but no. Those people . . . Dune in particular . . . killed all of my family and friends. We are the only ones left, Aero, it's our duty to bring him down. How long until he figures out how to travel across the worlds? When that happens, which he indubitably will, eventually, what's to stop him from doing the same thing to another world that he did to ours?"

His dæmon said nothing, understanding the wrath that boiled within them both. The entered the diner, ate relatively quickly, and left, leaving the money on the table. He was running low on gold now, and would need to find some way to get some more if he was hoping to survive much longer. 

His thoughts were elsewhere when he opened the door to leave, and ran slap-bang into a large, burly man who was entering.

"Hey!" The large one growled, snatching Tobias by the back of the neck as he tried stammered impatiently, "Let me go, I didn't mean to bump into you." The man flung him around, his face snarling into the boy's, his scraggly cat dæmon puffed up threateningly. "Little punk. I'll teach you to run into people . . ." 

  
Tobias rolled his eyes impatiently and struggled out of the man's grip. The man's dæmon must've lost control of herself and scratched Aerotsierma on the nose. The fox snarled back, and Tobias said, "Hey! That was uncalled for!" But the man grabbed the back of Tobias's headband as he ran, and Tobias doubled back, wrenching out of it. 

The man grabbed his arm before he could escape, and Tobias snarled at him, his hair disheveled. His mind searched the man's mind briefly, and registered in dull horror as the man's eyes flicked briefly to his forehead.

"What the _hell_ . . ."

Tobias bolted, but the man was much stronger and bigger than he, and spun him around, pinning his arms behind his back in a fierce, vice-like grip. "You're coming with me; I know what you are. Another one!"

Tobias saw the man's mind reeling with the thoughts of a reward; he obviously wasn't too concerned with the results of what would happen to the boy. But there were underlying thoughts as well; dull surprise that another of his kind had showed up. Another one? Tobias tried quite hard to search his mind, but the thoughts were muddled, and plus, Tobias was far from in the correct state of mind to search someone else's. 

Tobias was terrified. His cover was blown, and he had no idea what would happen to him now, but he knew it wasn't going to be pretty. He didn't have too far to go, however; the burly man and his cat dæmon merely took the boy and Aerotsierma to a small, rusty shed not too far from the diner, behind a seemingly abandoned warehouse. The man pulled a key forth, unlocked the massive lock that held the door shut, and threw him inside. It was pitch-black inside, and somehow even darker when the door slammed shut once more.

Tobias could hear the man outside yelling, "I'll have authorities come and take you away pretty soon, kids!"

Tobias's heart leapt. Kids? Plural? Aerotsierma jumped onto his shoulders and said, "Is there another one of our kind still left? Is that what he said?"

But the boy's thoughts were lost at the moment, trying desperately to reach that of the departing man, but he was too far away now, and he was hopeless. He turned to his dæmon, saying, "I don't know, Aero. That would certainly be extraordinary . . ."

"Who are you?"

Tobias jumped at the fearful voice coming from the far side of the shed, and his mind reeled. There WAS another human being in here with him! Tobias instantly tried to search the person's mind, but for some bizarre reason, found that he couldn't . . .

The voice was that of a girl, Tobias could tell that much. But there was no light whatsoever in the little shed, so he couldn't see her face. He felt her try to search his mind at that moment, and managed to block it. That was something he had known he could do ever since he was young; to block others with the Forthsight from delving into his thoughts.

But that meant that she possessed the Forthsight as well! 

Tobias's heart leapt with joy and curiosity, immediately he gasped breathlessly, "You have the Forthsight too! Who _are_ you?"

The timid, tentative voice replied once more, as the owner of it did not yet know that her newfound companion was gifted with the Forthsight like she was. 

"I . . . You tell me who you are first."

Tobias could not believe it! He wanted desperately to know who she was and how she had escaped Dunestone . . . he had certainly thought that he was the only one . . .

Although he was slightly annoyed at not being able to see her mind, he was positively intrigued by it as well. Who other than himself could block minds? His mind was a whirl, but then he remembered that she had asked a question, but hadn't been listening for his thoughts, and said, "What? Sorry . . ."

Tobias heard the girl rise to her feet and take a step forward. She replied, hesitant and still fearful, "I said . . . who are _you_? You're not gonna . . . hurt me, are you? 'Cause if you are, I'll put up a fight, I'm not going down to some other scum that's after me . . ."

Tobias stopped dead in his tracks. He _knew_ that voice . . . from where? He racked his brains, thinking, thinking . . . his brain came up with an idea, but he shrugged it away, too pessimistic to believe it . . . 

But his heart was still full of joy. A companion, at last! He hoped . . . unless she was for some reason not interested in helping him. Firstly, he wanted to tell her what he was to ease her nerves.

"No, of course I won't hurt you . . ." He took a step forward. "I have the Forthsight, like you."

She gasped and recoiled, and when she spoke, her voice was full of fear and surprise. "No, you're kidding! But I was the only one left, it's impossible! Don't play such cruel jokes, it isn't funny, I know that my people are all dead, you don't have to . . ."

Then, Tobias knew. He was pretty sure he knew who this was, and he felt like crying with joy. He was the happiest that he had been in years, and it took all his control to keep himself from bursting with exultation.

"I'm Tobias Bergen . . .remember me?"

The girl stood in stark silence for a moment, then derisive, mirthless laughter cut through the darkness. "You are just too cruel, aren't you? He's long dead, I got news of his death long after I escaped Dunestone; don't play tricks on me like that, you heartless stranger, I know he's long gone . . ."

Quivering with excitement, he took a step closer to the girl in the dark and reached out, taking her hand. Tobias was aware of how smooth and cold it was and how well it fit in his own hand. To his surprise, she didn't jerk it away; it was limp, surely with shock and disbelief. He slowly brought her hand up to rest on his forehead.

She felt the scar on his head, tracing the XIII that had been long since engraved there with a blade. After a moment she slowly withdrew her hand, breathing hard in the darkness. For a moment the only sound was the heavy, disbelieving breathing, and then the girl spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Thirteen . . . oh my God, it is you . . ."

To Tobias's surprise, she suddenly jumped toward him as a sob was wrenched from her throat, throwing her arms around his shoulders and embracing him in a fierce, emotional hug. Tobias was surprised but quite pleased as well, and tentatively returned the embrace as his long-lost best friend sobbed into his shoulder.

"Oh Tobias . . . I thought I'd never see you again . . . it's been _years_ . . ."

Tobias suddenly was overwhelmed with emotion that he had long since abandoned. He felt tears prick his eyes as well, and held her tight to him as she talked to him in between sobs.

"They killed all my family . . . just like . . . like yours, I know . . . I was with you in your mind when your sister was taken away . . . I remember. They took me away first, but somehow I escaped . . . it's really a long story, Tobias, I don't . . . don't really want to talk about it, I'm sure you understand. But I stayed around long enough be with my parents in their minds. I tried to free them, but I couldn't, it was too difficult, I . . . I couldn't . . . and they took them away, oh, Tobias, they took them away . . ."

Tobias felt the sobs rack her body as the memories surfaced. He felt deep pity and compassion for her, and said gently, "I know, I know, it happened to me too, I was with my parents in their minds until the end . . ."

But Iris, for of course it was her, shook her tearstained head and said, "No, no, you don't understand, I had the chance to rescue them but I messed up, I couldn't, it's my fault that they're dead, my fault . . . "

Tobias could not express the feelings that bubbled inside him at that statement; all that he was able to do was to hold her even more closely and whisper, "Actually, Iris, I do know, I understand, I know . . ."

For what seemed like a very long time they merely clung to one another, all alone in the darkness, their dæmons mingling on the concrete floor beneath them. They told each other their stories, for the most part. Iris's gift had been discovered even before Tobias had discovered his, and hers was the ability to warp the minds around her into thinking that she wasn't there. This ability was very much like that of the witches, but she couldn't hold it for very long, and it took extreme mental concentration. She had escaped this way, in the execution room, but had been unable to hold it long enough to get far, and she was injured quite badly by some guards, but still managed to get away. She had stolen a weapon from one of the guards and was able to defend herself long enough until she could concentrate enough to make herself invisible again.

Then she had escaped, hiding in various dark corners and closets of Dunestone, unfortunately too far from Tobias to tell him that she was okay, but not too far from her parents. She had tried to free them several times, but always just barely escaped with her life. Then one day, her parents were taken for execution, and it was too late for her to save them.

Tobias told her his story as well, leaving out the part when he escaped, for now, as it was long and needed more time to tell. When Iris had finished her story, there was one thing that Tobias didn't understand.

"What was it that you didn't want to talk about? You don't have to if you don't want to, but was it something that you already told me?"

Iris lowered her eyes. "No. If you really want to know, I'll tell you. When I escaped from the execution room, and I stole the weapon from the guards, I . . . killed one. In cold blood, right there, wham, he was on the floor, bleeding, then his eyes glazed over and he stopped breathing . . ."

Tobias took her hand, pleased at the touch of it. "No, Iris, it was in defense of your life; those people are evil, terrible, and I promised myself to kill some too, in vengeance of my family."

Iris brushed the tears from her face. "You're right . . ."

Tobias badly wanted to see her. He was still having trouble believing that she was really there, really here, it was just too incredible and against the odds. He desperately wanted to see her in the sunlight. The picture of her that he had was when she was ten . . . but now she was fourteen, same as him, and he knew that she must be beautiful . . .

Being locked up for years, Tobias hadn't been around any girls, and he was surprised and pleased at the basically new feeling that rose in him at the touch of her hand on his.

When their stories were told, Tobias and Iris stood up and faced the heavily locked door. "Now," Tobias said, "All we have to do is get out of this hole."

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(Author's Note: This chapter was fun to write because it was different! And, by the way, although Iris's gift is similar to powers of witches, she is NOT a witch, and the question of whether or not she is will never even be brought up. It would be an interesting plot twist, yes, but it's not the direction that I want this fic to go in. I'm sure you all understand! Also, I wanted to write more in this chapter, but I decided to save some stuff for the next chapter, 'cause this one was running a little long . . . so stick around, review, and check back soon. I'll have Chapter 8 up in a day or two!)


	8. The One

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(Author's Note: Well, I thought it was necessary, and one of my favorite reviewers pretty much summed it up in one comment: "Something's brewing between those two!")

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CHAPTER EIGHT--The One

Tobias felt Iris come closer to him in the darkness, whispering quietly, "Tobias, I've wrenched and pulled at the door for hours, but there's no breaking that lock, trust me."

But Tobias merely smiled, saying, "I've discovered my secret gift, Iris. I can make holes through the worlds." He heard the girl give a little intake of breath from the surprise, not knowing what to say.

"You can . . . what? What are you talking about?"

But Tobias gave no reply, only a quiet "Shh" as he lapsed into deep concentration, bringing his hands up in front of his face and sending the deepest parts of his Forthsight down to the tips of his fingers. He felt tingles in his hands like tiny currents of electricity, searching, questing for the minute nicks in the fabric of space-time.

At last his fingertips felt something tug in the air, finding a snag and pulling on it. He felt cool air waft through as he gently pulled the opening wider and wider until it was large enough for one to stick their hand through it.

Iris gasped in shock. Before her, hanging in midair, was a small, irregular patch of blue sky, a rather chilly breeze blowing through and tousling her hair. "What on Earth . . . " she began but found it impossible to continue. She slowly raised her hand and brought it near the window, then plunged it through.

Tobias chuckled appreciatively. "It works, see? I don't know how I have this gift, but it's a blessing beyond anything I could possibly have imagined. Now, we can go through to another world, Iris, and bring back others to help to fight Dune."

Iris still hadn't responded, too awestruck to speak. Tobias saw her take her hand back by the light of the blue sky of beyond. Finally, she spoke, in a hushed, awe-filled voice. "That is amazing, Tobias . . . I've never heard of anyone with a gift like this . . . incredible, simply incredible. Almost too good to be true."

Tobias concentrated again and made the window large enough so that they could travel through. Of course, he had made the window into the same world that he had traveled in the previous night, simply because he didn't know how to create a window into any other world.

Iris proceeded with caution, but she tentatively went through the window all the same. It was a foot or so above the ground, and after Iris had secured herself on the patched-snow hill, Tobias saw her dæmon pass through after her. Tobias hadn't seen Iris's face, but from the way she had moved through the window, Tobias knew that this dæmon was a perfect representation of his human: a long-legged, graceful, elegant cat, which leapt with great agility through the window after Iris.

Tobias smiled to himself and followed her out, Aerotsierma leaping through at his side. For some reason unbeknownst to him, Tobias felt his heart beating fast as he emerged into the sunlight and quickly sealed up the window.

He quickly scanned the surrounded area with his mind for any sign of life, sentient or dangerous, but found none other than Iris and her dæmon, of course. He recognized the hillside that they stood on from the episode on the previous night. 

Iris laughed in delight at the clear blue sky and the sunlight playing on the snow and grass of the hillsides. "This is beautiful! Oh Tobias, this is amazing . . . "

But Tobias wasn't looking at the scenery; he was looking at his best friend whom he hadn't seen since they were both eleven. She looked much like she had in the picture that Tobias still carried in his bag, but years older, of course, and more pretty than he could've imagined. She had the raven-black hair and sparkling green eyes from the picture, but there was something about her eyes that were far different as well. They had completely lost the joyous, innocent look of childhood, but the dark look that replaced it was not simply from growing up: Tobias knew that it was from the horrors that she, like himself, had been through.

While Tobias gazed at Iris, Aerotsierma was examining her dæmon. He was, in fact, a caracal: a lithe, sinewy cat about the same size as the fox, with reddish-tawny fur and black juts of fur from the ear tips. He was gorgeous and graceful just like his human, Tobias thought dreamily.

Tobias was distantly aware that Iris was sizing him up, as well. He wondered, still distantly, if she was pleased with what she saw: the tall boy that stood before her, his light blonde hair tousled by the wind, revealing the scar that still showed, having never bothered to replace his headband. His intense dark brown eyes bored into Iris's, and for a moment they merely stared at one another.

Tobias's mind was in such a whirl. She looked so different, and yet so familiar, than what he had remembered. And there was so much catching up to do . . . he found it amazing and wonderful, too good to be true, that he had found his best friend alive, years after having last seen her, believing her to be dead.

But . . . there was no time for that. He broke the gaze that they held and turned around quickly, feeling redness spread across his face. "We need to get moving, then I can cut a hole back through, and we can get moving from there."

He heard Iris walk up behind him, and felt the hand she placed on his shoulder. "Why can't you just make a window into another world from this one?"

Tobias sighed. "I don't know how, actually. I only discovered this gift last night . . . I don't have very much experience. This world was the one that opened up before me, therefore it is the only one that I know how to open."

Iris was about to reply, but her dæmon spoke at that moment. "Iris?" Tobias had rarely heard other people's dæmons speaking before. "Iris, I can hear something coming."

Aerotsierma heard it too. She cocked her ears and sniffed the air, and then turned to her human. "I can smell him, Tobias, it's that beast that we just barely escaped from last night."

Tobias felt panic rise inside him again. Iris and her caracal dæmon were walking to the top of the hill to try and get a look at the approaching creature. Tobias was about to make another window, but Iris was too far away . . . "Iris!" he shouted up at her, panic rising slightly in his voice. "Get down here! Quick!"

The girl turned and shaded her eyes against the sun as she looked down at Tobias, and at that moment the ferocious white beast appeared over the hill, directly behind Iris.

Time stood still for an instant. Rage and grief rose at once within Tobias's heart, for there was no time to get her to safety. They stood at least thirty yards apart, and Tobias knew that before he was halfway there, the white beast would've devoured his best friend. 

So he stood still, looking on in horror, wishing and praying that something would save her, but he knew it was impossible. She turned at the noise behind her, and screamed in terror at the beast that loomed over her, salivating, lowering its colossal jaws upon the quaking girl was too scared to run. Even if she did, however, she knew that it wouldn't make any difference. The beast had her.

Tobias roared, "No!" And charged forward; the beast lowered its jaws over Iris's head and clamped them shut around her shoulders. She was screaming and sobbing and shaking, and Tobias screamed at the beast, but it ignored him. Iris's dæmon writhed in pathetic agony on the ground beneath.

Tobias knew at that moment that he would give anything to save her. His mind went suddenly delirious, and a strange sort of light seemed to dance before his eyes. He was wishing, in some far off, distant sense, that he had the power to stop the beast from the distance he was in. He was wishing and praying for it with all his heart, and then, quite suddenly, everything went dark.

The great white beast's was suddenly flung backwards as if from some bizarre, unseen force; at the same time, its huge jaws were forced apart, and Iris dropped from them, wet and bloody. The creature leapt up, snarling at the force that had attacked him, and suddenly was beat down again, and again, until it ran fearfully away from its invisible assailant.

Iris was bleeding from a long gash on her shoulder, but hobbled down to the unconscious Tobias without worrying about her injury. "Tobias!" She shouted while shaking him. "Wake up!"

He finally slipped from his darkness and sat up, uncrossing his eyes and rubbing his head. "What . . . what happened, Iris? You're . . . you're okay?"

He was very dazed and out of it, but seemingly uninjured. "The beast let me go, like something attacked it, but nothing did." Tobias looked confused for a moment, and then said, "Oh . . . no, something did attack it . . . I think, anyway."

Iris glared at him. "Talk sense! What the hell do you mean?"

Tobias didn't know how to explain to her any other way, so he just put it the way that it was. "I am not entirely sure, Iris, but I think that . . . somehow, I made that happen."

Iris stared at him, bemused. "You mean that YOU knocked it away like that, and opened up its jaws?" He nodded, still somewhat dazed. "Yeah . . . I think so . . ."

She rolled her eyes at him. "You are a nutter, aren't you? How do you expect me to believe that you really made that happen?"

He sighed, and said, "I'm not sure what happened, Iris, but it's my gift. It's . . . it's not just opening up windows like that. It's . . . if I really want it to happen . . . somehow, it does . . . 

Iris gawked at him for a moment, the wheels in her brain turning at this bit of information, but before she could say anything else, Tobias propped himself up on his elbows and said, "Iris, you're bleeding."

She looked down at the long gash on her shoulder, dripping blood down her arm and side. "Oh, it's . . . it's nothing, really," she mumbled, but Tobias slowly reached his hand up to her arm, hovering it over her shoulder. Iris felt the strangest sensation, and when she looked down, the gash was gone, and had taken the pain along with it.

"What the . . . " she started, but couldn't finish. Apparently, the vast exertion from using his gift again had increased the fatigue, thus rendering him unconscious again. 

Iris was shaking when she stood up. If all this was true, and not a bizarre figment of her imagination, then that meant the following: she had, through some incredible turn of fate and luck, stumbled upon her best friend whom she thought was dead for three years. Not only that, but he was really cute, and was one of two people left on the planet with the ability of Forthsight. And in addition to this, they were both safe, out of harm's way, and HE had the ability to make windows through the world.

But there was something else, too, Iris knew. The fact that he could close up a wound . . . fight a creature from thirty yards . . . and open windows through worlds, this could only mean one thing . . .

He was The One.

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(Another Author's Note: Yeah, I guess this chapter was a little off, but it was really late when I wrote it, okay? *Sigh…* I love Iris's dæmon, though . . . I wish I could put a picture of him up, but stupid FF.net, I'd have to freakin' PAY for it *mumbles*. Sorry, anyway, please review, and I'll have the next chapter up as soon as I can!)


	9. Another World

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(Author's Note: here's Chapter Nine! Erm . . . not much else to say . . . just read! And review!)

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CHAPTER NINE--Another World

It wasn't long until Tobias came to. He blinked and stood shakily to his feet, leaning on Iris for support. Iris muttered, "So you _are_ The One, aren't you."

Tobias rubbed his head. "That's what I was trying to tell you. And it's true, too. At least I think so. The old prophecy, remember, said that the person with the gifts of The One would be the person to restore our people, and I thought I was the only one left . . . "

Iris shrugged. "Well, it sure must be you, because it isn't me. And we're the only ones left, right?"

Tobias sat down on a rock, letting the sunlight warm his face. Aerotsierma perched upon his shoulders. "I suppose that we are."

After a few moments of silence, Iris said, "We're going to go back, yes?" But Tobias stood up and rubbed his forehead again. "Actually, I was thinking. If I made a window into this world, what's to stop me from cutting into any world that I choose?"

Iris immediately leapt to her feet. "Of course!" she exclaimed. "You can cut through into another world like ours . . . where people have dæmons, like us. Remember, we learned about the worlds many years ago, and they told us that few worlds have people with dæmons. But . . . how can that be so? It's like an abomination! How can they live?"

But the boy shook his head. "In this world, which we are in now, the people have no dæmons. But they live just fine . . . it's like their dæmons exist within them."

A puzzled and slightly disgusted look came over Iris's face, and she muttered, "That's just creepy."

Tobias looked at his hands. "I'm going to try now," he said, extending them out and closing his eyes. "I'm going to try to use my mind to narrow the worlds down."

He stood there for several minutes, one hand extended out before him, the other pressed against his forehead, his eyes closed, but his mind open. Strange images swirled in his brain, and he could see the faint outlines of people moving, could hear faintly the outlines of voices murmuring, could feel . . . 

He opened his eyes quite suddenly and took a step back. "Only three," he muttered, bringing both of his hands down.

"Three what?" Iris asked, looking at him curiously. 

"Three worlds," he continued, his brow furrowing in thought. "Three worlds out of the thousands. In only three worlds do people possess dæmons like ours."

Iris gaped at him. "Only three? But that's impossible! How do people survive? Are they all half-dead?"  


Tobias didn't answer her question, but instead said, "And not only that, but one of those three worlds is ours. And in one of the remaining two, there are only two people whose dæmons actually . . . exist."

Iris couldn't believe any of it. "That's just damn bizarre," she said in amazement. "So which one are you going to go into?"

Tobias sighed. "The logical thing to do would be to go into the world where dæmons are everywhere and normal. However . . . my curiosity begs me to cut through to the world where only two humans have dæmons. I would love to see why there are only two dæmons . . . "

Iris shuddered. "I don't know, Tobias, I think that seeing people everywhere without their dæmons would be extremely creepy . . ."

Tobias smiled at her. "Just think that everyone's dæmon is a mouse, and they're all hiding in the pockets of their humans."

She gave him a funny look, and her caracal dæmon's tail twitched. "Alright," Tobias said, "Unless you have any objections, I'm going to go ahead and cut through the worlds now, okay?" 

Iris said, "You're right, it would be more logical to go into the normal world; other than curiosity, why do you want to go into the other one?"

Tobias turned to her and explained. "Because the fact that there are only two people with dæmons in that world means that those two people have a reason for this. Perhaps people like that would be more likely to help us."  


She thought for a moment, and then said, "You do have a point there, I must admit. Okay then, go ahead and cut through. I've no objections."

Tobias closed his eyes again, fixing one hand in the air and the other to his forehead. After what seemed like an eternity, he began to feel that bizarre tingle at the tips of his fingers again, and tugged gently on the fabric of space-time.

Gradually he found a point and began to pull it back, ever so slowly, as Iris stared at the phenomenon in utter amazement. She had never before seen anything of the sort, since the last time he had done this, it had been in the dark. She stared wide-eyed until finally, he had made a window large enough for his hand to fit through. He kept tugging, little by little, until the window was large enough to travel through.

Iris blinked in amazement, and then leaned down and peered through the window. On the other side, it was grey and raining, looking in on a vast city. The wind whipped around, blowing sheets of precipitation through the small window, drenching them in the coldness. "I can see some people walking by on the other side of the street, Tobias," Iris said, peering across. "So if we're to go through, we must do so quietly and discreetly."

Tobias nodded and gathered his bags. But before he went through, he said, "Wait a second. Aerotsierma, why don't you go through and take a look around?"

His fox dæmon leapt through the window without a word. She nosed around on the grass outside, right alongside a sidewalk. Tobias noticed how out of place she looked against the grey, rainy city, but she wasn't as conspicuous as the four of them together would be.

Aero leapt back quite suddenly when she neared the street, as a car came roaring past. She strained the link until it was painful, and Tobias called out, "Okay Aero, come back, please don't go any further!"

His dæmon ran gratefully back to him, leaping through the window straight into his arms. He held her close for a moment before saying, "Okay, Iris, I guess we should go through now. This new world doesn't seem nearly as primitive as the one that we're in now."

"Not quite as high-tech as the city that we're both from, though," Iris responded as she went to retrieve her bag. "But a lot more advanced than many of the towns and villages in our world."

They slid quickly out onto the grass, and Tobias sealed up the window as quickly as he could. When they were out in the rain, Iris said urgently, "Tobias, it is going to look extremely strange that we have a caracal and a fox following us. How are we to hide our dæmons?"

Tobias looked around him at the rainy city, wondering where he was. He tried to search for a street sign to give him an idea, but saw none. There weren't any people in their immediate vicinity, but there were crowds moving along the sidewalk on the other side of the road. "We can't, really. Just . . . try to look normal. If anybody asks us anything, we'll think of something. We're . . . animal trainers, or something."

He felt Aerotsierma bristle at his side at the remark, and Iris's dæmon uttered a low growl, but Tobias ignored them both, and started to walk across the sidewalk.

*

As Will Parry walked slowly down the side of the road from the store, a bag in his right hand, his thoughts drifted back to Lyra, as they often did. It had been more than a year since they last parted, but his heart hadn't healed even the slightest bit. He missed her with all his might.

Kirjava, a beautiful, large, sleek black cat, walked at his side, invisible to all but the eyes of others with dæmons. Will looked around at all the people around him, most with umbrellas or raincoats. Even without either, no body much noticed Will, and no one saw his dæmon. He had always been good at remaining inconspicuous, but for some reason, since he and Lyra had forever parted, he seemed to have sunk back into the shadows even more. 

He sighed heavily and stopped at the crossroads, waiting for the cars to pass. He wiped rainwater from his eyes and glanced down at Kirjava. But the black cat was rigid, staring across the street stolidly. Feeling her puzzlement, Will followed her gaze until he saw what she was looking at: two kids, about his age, sitting on the grass, looking rather dazed, conversing . . . with two animals whose movements and responses seemed oddly sentient.

Will stared even more, stepping out of the crowd, changing directions. Kirjava murmured to him, "Will, look at that. Isn't that odd?"

Will narrowed his eyes, trying to see the strange pair better. They were looking around in bemusement, slowly getting to their feet. Like himself, they had no raincoats or umbrellas, only small rucksacks. But the two animals were very out of place in downtown Oxford, one of them being unmistakably a red fox, the other, some large, tawny cat. 

"They couldn't be . . . " Kirjava started, but Will said, "No. Impossible. Of course they're not."

All the same, his curiosity got the best of him, and he found himself crossing the street, making his way over to the strange pair and their creatures.

(Author's Note: Like? Don't like? Please review and let me know! I'll have the next chapter up soon. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to email me. Thanks!)


	10. The Physics of Forthsight

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(Author's note: I realize that it's been a while since I've updated and am therefore sorry for keeping everyone waiting [oh I'm sure everyone was just jumping up and down waiting for the next installment! :P]. Anyway . . . here's chapter 10!)

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CHAPTER TEN--The Physics of Forthsight

Covering their heads against the rain, Tobias and Iris moved toward the sidewalk. The former of the two spotted Will first, but it was Iris who exclaimed, "Oh, look Tobias, at that big black cat!"

Tobias had a curious hunch, as he often did, and murmured quietly, "I'm not entirely sure it's a mere big black cat, Iris."

It was quite evident to both of them that Will was heading in their general direction, and he had quite a determined and resolute look on his face. Tobias looked at him curiously as he approached; he had the look of someone who didn't really belong here.

The closer Will came to the two Forthsight-gifted children, the more his large black cat seemed to be strange. It followed him quite close, much like their own dæmons. They walked to meet him at the sidewalk, figuring that he was as good as person as any to start with, especially because of the cat . . . 

Iris whispered to Tobias, "You don't think that cat is . . ."

Tobias did not reply, but instead nodded to Will as he finally reached the pair and their dæmons. Immediately Will said, "What are those animals you have with you?"

Iris was about to respond, but Tobias didn't want her to spill the beans quite yet. His heart was racing in anticipation of whether or not Will's creature was really a cat, or . . . not quite a cat.

So the boy replied, "This is a red fox and a caracal. Why do you ask?"

Will's heart dropped slightly. "Caracals and foxes are not often found prancing around downtown Oxford," he responded with an uncharacteristic hint of satire in his voice.

"Well, we aren't exactly from around here," Iris said, making sure to put a small content of irony in her own voice at the statement. "And if you don't mind me saying, large glossy black cats don't often follow humans so closely in the city in such weather," she added.

Will's heart leapt up a bit at this statement, but his eyes narrowed suspiciously. "So? What's it bloody well to you?" Tobias stepped forward defiantly. He noticed that he was just a bit taller than the steady-jawed, grim-eyed boy that faced him, although they did seem to be about the same age. 

And so Tobias said, "Then tell me why you came all the way over here to us? I find it strange that one would do so merely to question about animals." Again, at the word 'animal,' he felt his dæmon bristle at his side.

Will shrugged, his stony eyes set on Tobias's dark, intelligent ones. "That and the fact that it seems all very strange in general, that's all. You have no coats or anything to protect against the rain, as well as being about my age, so I was curious."

Tobias decided then that he rather liked Will, and it was no use beating around the bush.

"Is that cat your dæmon?"

Will jumped visibly, and stared hard at Tobias. "Do I . . . do I know you or something?"

Tobias smiled slightly and replied, "No, you don't know me . . ."

Half an hour later, the three were sitting inside a warm coffee shop, conversing quite avidly. They had introduced themselves to each other, and their dæmons as well. Each was overjoyed at the incredible luck that had befallen them; it was evident, however, that each party was avoiding asking the other their major questions.

At first the question of hiding their dæmons came up, but Will assured them that the people in this world couldn't see them. He also explained how most humans do indeed have their dæmons "inside of them." Tobias half-way understood this, but Iris was rather freaked out and confused.

Tobias sat back in a chair, sipping on a hot white chocolate mocha, and said, "So tell me, Will, how did you come to be the only human in your world who possesses a dæmon?"

And thus came the question that prompted Will to tell his story. He left out a lot of the detail, but included most of it, ending with his remorse at never being able to see his beloved Lyra again. He also mentioned that he wasn't in fact the only human in this world with a dæmon, but Dr. Mary Malone had one as well.

And so Tobias and Iris returned it by telling their tale as well, which was even more miserable than Will's. Each felt quite sorry for the other as the tales unfolded, but Will was rather surprised that he had found someone with a tale even more pathetic than his own.

Quick friendship built among the three, and it wasn't long before Will could contain himself no more.

"If you have the power to travel through the worlds like that, then you have a way that would allow me to see Lyra again!" A light of hope and joy shone on his face that hadn't been there for quite a long time. The prospect of seeing Lyra again filled him with bright, giddy joy.

But Tobias had other things on his mind. "I know, Will, but you see my point of view as well, don't you? My family, and Iris's family as well, was destroyed by a terrible, abominable evil. We need to fight that evil, and that was my purpose in coming here. To find others like us, with dæmons, to recruit and help us bring down Dunestone. I, for one, will never rest knowing that the murderer of my friends and parents still lives."

"I understand your pain, Tobias, but in order for me to help you I must request a favor of you. What harm, tell me, would it do to make a window for me into Lyra's world? Does your power have any notable side effects?"

Tobias shook his head. "Not that I know of."

Will said, "When I made windows with the Subtle Knife, it would release a Specter each time. But seeing as both of your dæmons are in fixed shapes, this must not occur with your power, or the Specters would surely attack you."

Tobias nodded, thinking, and Will continued. "It really makes me wonder how that works."

Tobias knew that he was asking for a demonstration, but chose instead to say, "I've been thinking about it a lot, really, and it actually seems to have more to do with the laws of physics than any sort of actual supernatural ability."

Will smiled whimsically. "Like Dust, sort of . . ."

From Will's story, Tobias and Iris understood Dust a little bit, and replied, "In a sense, yes. What did you mean by the windows releasing a Specter? What is a Specter?"

Will explained briefly about the mysterious shadowing creatures emitted when a slice through the world was created, and how they preyed mercilessly upon adults but children could not see them at all. 

"It all has to do with the changing of your dæmon," he finished.

Tobias nodded slowly, a thoughtful look in his eyes. "I must discover what it is that prevents this from happening when I open a window between the worlds."

Iris smiled at him, stroking her dæmon softly. "You'll figure it out. You always were pretty smart, weren't you?"

Tobias shrugged modestly, but equations were already formulating inside his mind.

Inside Will's mind was absolute wonder and joy that nearly pushed back his suspicion entirely. He was going to see Lyra again! He hoped that he could, anyway, these strangers seemed nice enough, but entirely more concerned with finding help against their own dark enemies. Will figured that this was understandable enough, but the suspicion, all the same, was not entirely gone from his mind. What if this was some sort of weird trap or something?

Tobias smiled at him and said, "It is not a trap, my friend. We really do need the help more than anything, and I can prove to you, even without creating a window, that I can. No lies we tell."

Will jumped and glared at Tobias. "How did you . . . "

"The Forthsight, remember?" He grinned, tapping the side of his head. "I apologize; I swear from here on out not to delve into your thoughts. But you must believe us; this is not a trap. We will not lie to you, we swear."

Will, bemused at the overall strangeness of this entire scenario, said, "I still find it extremely difficult to believe that there is another way to open the worlds, and without letting any Dust out, too. And without creating a Specter. How is this done? The angels would be most surprised!"

Tobias took a newspaper from a coffee table and flipped to some empty space, asking, "Have you a pencil on you?" Will shook his head, but leaned over and took a pen from the table on the other side of him, handing it to Tobias.

Immediately he began scribbling something quickly on the paper. Aerotsierma leapt up next to him, placing her small black paws on his arm and cocking her head curiously at his frantic scrawling. Will and Iris leaned over too, interested at whatever on earth it was that he was doing, but he just muttered, "Hold on a second, it will only take a moment."

While Tobias was busy, Iris's caracal dæmon gazed at the large, glossy black cat that was Will's. "You have a very pretty dæmon," Iris said to him. He reached down and stroked the cat. "She is, isn't she? Her name is Kirjava. Your dæmon is beautiful as well."

Iris beamed, and her caracal languidly licked a paw. "Yeah, Byralon is a caracal, all right." Will had already told them both the story of how he came to have a dæmon, and Tobias had told him the history of their own "race" of Forthsight-gifted dæmon-bearing people, and how they were the last of their kind.

"Okay! I think I got it!" Tobias sat up, tossing the newspaper sheet to Will. He caught it and gazed at the scribbling, and after a moment said, "What the bloody hell is this?"

Tobias smiled proudly and took the paper back. "It's the equation that explains how it is possible to travel interdimensionally through the worlds without your Subtle Knife or other similar tool, and without any of the same side effects, either."

He held the paper up for them to see. Scrawled across the center of it was:

__

II±(_r) = -2_√νι κγ(_r')dr' _± δ 

And below it, there was more:

__

-With rι _being the corresponding leftmost r for the interdimensional "wormhole" and regular centre topologies. The corresponding momenta are given by_

II± = ¼δ/δ_r_ _ln( ±e-γδT±/δr) ± ½κφ _

There was still more . . . 

-_The spacetime's interval expressed in a remote observer's spherical coordinate system takes the form_

ds2 = (1 - r0/r)dct2 - dr2/(1 - r0/r) - r2(dq2 + sin2qdf2)

And below that, there was even more scribbling and strange Greek symbols. Will shook his head, saying, "Whatever you say, I'll have to take your word for it!"

Tobias pointed to several of the symbols. "See? This is where is says that there is no actual "space" between the two worlds; therefore no Dust or Specters can come from it. The corners are n-dimensional figures, which prevents anything coming out of the edges!"

He indicated the two equations. "It really isn't as complicated as it looks."

Will looked at his watch. "I have to be getting home. We've been here for going on two hours. I need to get the groceries home to mum. Can you two meet me here tomorrow at around noon? I would invite you to stay at my place, but things are kind of weird around there, and mum isn't fully recovered yet . . . "

Tobias nodded. "No problem. We'll find some place to crash. Here at noon, got you. See you then!"

They exited out of the coffee shop and into the rain, then parting ways. 

Will was more excited than he ever remembered being. Tomorrow at noon he would get to see Lyra!

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(Author's Note: Hope everybody liked that one. Kind of messed up maybe . . . but it's been a while since I've worked on this story . . . but now that I'm writing again, you can expect the next chapter up soon. And sorry about all the equations; I was in a rather physics-y mood when writing this. _ Unfortunately, some of the Greek symbols wouldn't transfer properly into HTML format, so…oh well. By the way, those are real equations; I didn't just type down random crap! ^_^ . . . If anyone can tell me in a review what the real title of the third equation is, I'll give you a PRIZE!!!! [Oh goodie]

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. . . Don't forget to REVIEW!!!!)


	11. Into the Darkness

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Important Author's Note. Read it or I'll be forced to put two months between each chapter.

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(Author's Note: I am **so **sorry that this installment has taken me so damn long to get out. I truly do apologize. *Sigh* I've just been seriously busy lately. I know that all of my faithful readers will throttle me for procrastinating even **more, **but I had to make a special note. When I first started writing this little story, I never thought that it would ever be so much of a success. So here's my (undoubtedly annoying) little tribute to my wonderful, lovely reviewers. *Hugs all reviewers until they can't breathe* By the way, they're in alphabetical order. ^_~

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My Most Lovely and Wonderful Reviewers:

Ai no Yuugi, who knows the truly best way to motivate a writer to complete the next chapter….*cough* death threats *cough* ^_~

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Aylee the Dragon, who is one of my best friends in real life, as well as a great writer of various anime (in addition to a really cool HP fic) and a very nice reviewer as well. You rule Aylee!

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Ceres Wunderkind, who has written, truly, one of the best HDM fics I've ever come across. Everyone who reads _my_ crap HDM fic should more wisely use their time and read Ceres's awesome story instead.

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Gaile, who reviewed every chapter all at once (not many people do that). Thanks!

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Ghost, who is yet another faithful reader, and who has actually given me some excellent constructive criticism, and has some awesome works of fiction up as well. And, who has a brilliant HDM fic up, but hasn't updated in ages. *cough*

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Glen Timian, who is going to get around to actually _reading _the story as soon as possible….*grins*

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Kara, who actually asked me questions about the story, which helped me to think about the validity of certain elements of it, therefore granting me more means of improvement! Thanks!

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KirjavaLyra, who is another one in the faithful reader category (my very first reviewer! *sniff*), _and_ who has a plethora of awesome HDM fics. Take a look!

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Leefta, who is another faithful reader, as well as being one of the most intelligent people I talk to online, _and _my spur-of-the-moment Beta Reader!

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Midnight.Star, who is one of my most faithful readers of all. Thanks for your support (and your various complaints about me needing to get off my lazy ass and work on the story….^_^).

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Moon Sparkle, who is another _very _faithful reader, and who also has some awesome stories up. She helped me come up with some ideas for my HDM story as well. You rule!

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Otter Person, who also reviewed every chapter all at once. Thaaaaaaaanks.

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Red XIII a.k.a. Katie, who is another of my best friends in real life, and who always makes sure to write each and every review of hers in the most satirical way possible. Thanks for pointing out my miniscule grammar errors by the way! What _ever _would I do without you?! Such a great friend, I tell ya!

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SkywaterBlue, another faithful reader, and a great reviewer. Thanks!

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Tan Ji, who seems to share my love for physics…rock on!

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Wolf on Air, who finally got around to reviewing (^_^) and has an excellent start to a surely brilliant HDM fic. 

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And all the rest whom I'm too lazy to write down comments by:_ thanks to _Prof. Sparky, Seph Girl, Myst Phlaerah Nanaki, Sniperwolf, Jesus Freak, Riosundance, jt112, Kirjava, anon., shesha, Mojo the Mutant Monkey, T.J., StarEyes, Elissa, and….erm….well, if I've forgotten anyone, just yell. Ahem. Anyway………… 

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*inhales* Okay then! There you go! Now, before somebody kills me…on with the story!

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CHAPTER ELEVEN-Into the Darkness

It was almost midnight before Breyman and his men came loping into the relatively small town of Quell. After asking a few well-placed questions and scaring a few people out of their wits, he had gathered enough information from the inhabitants to be able to derive that Tobias had, indeed, passed through that way. However, Dune's right-hand-man could find no evidence of his current presence, nor of his leaving the town, and thus became quite suspicious. 

He presently arrived at the home of the man who had captured Iris and Tobias, frightened him half to death as he awoke, and quite easily got the information of what had happened. The Forthsight-gifted boy had been captured, locked up, and had mysteriously disappeared. 

Breyman wasn't stupid; he could fairly easily figure out what had happened. In addition, he knew what he was up against: that boy must have had an extraordinary power that allowed him some way to travel the worlds. It was the only explanation.

He rallied his men, checked his weaponry and prepared for the next course of action.

*

As Tobias and Iris wandered down the dark streets of Oxford, their dæmons by their side, they pondered over the events that had recently occurred.

"I can't believe that we found another person with a dæmon so easily! Do you really think that he might help us, Tobias?"

The blonde boy nodded. "I know that he will, Iris. He definitely seems like the type to always keep his word. As long as we stick to our side of the bargain, I'm sure that he'll never let us down."

"I hope you're right, Tobias. I dread what's to come, though."

Tobias agreed, although he said nothing. They walked in silence for a while before Iris piped up, "Um, so anyway, where are we going to sleep tonight?" Tobias had been wondering as well, but hadn't voiced his thoughts aloud until now. "Well, if either of us had any money, we could rent a hotel room. I don't have any money from this world, though, and anyway, it's so _different _here! The cars, and the lights, and the buildings; it's all so mind-boggling. My suggestion would be that we make an opening to another world where we can get some decent shut-eye."

He paused on the sidewalk and said, "I would make a window right into our home world, but I don't think that would be a good idea, owing to the fact that they know what we are, now. So I suppose I'll just sift through the worlds until I come to a suitable one…"

They walked to an area of little inhabitation, where it was rather dark and enshrouded in a post-rain mist, and Tobias presently closed his eyes in concentration. Iris waited, watching him intently. Tobias let his mind drift down into the tips of his fingers, and slowly and deliberately extended his hand to touch the very fabric of space before him. He waited for that familiar snag…

Waited…

And waited…

And then, instead of the customary feeling of acceptance as his fingers and mind took hold, there was a blast of plangent pain. His hands flew to his forehead as a wave of anguish stabbed through his brain, and he reeled back, uttering naught but a stifled moan. Iris jumped forward immediately. "What's wrong? What happened?"

But the pain wasn't as transitory as he had hoped; it seemed to increase with each moment. Soon it was blinding agony, and he fell to the ground, tears squeezing from his eyes, unable to speak.

Iris panicked. "Tobias! Oh God, what's wrong?!" She knelt down next to his now-prostrate form, trying her best to comfort him, but having no idea of what she could do to help. After all, she had no idea of the magnitude of mental torment that was aggrieving him. Tobias, on the other hand, couldn't understand what was happening. He was dimly aware of Iris's touch, as well as the form of his twisting dæmon Aerotsierma on the ground at his side, but other than that, nothing but white-hot agony filled his vision and mind.

For a moment he thought he was going to die, but then it passed, carried away on the wind as if it had never occurred.

Tobias looked up at Iris slowly, his face white, his hair matted with sweat, his eyes wide with fear. He was shaking. Iris stared at him and whispered, "What happened, Tobias?"

His voice quavered when he spoke. "I--I'm not sure, Iris." He reached out shakily and drew his shivering, wide-eyed dæmon to his chest gently. He stared at Iris intently, but his eyes seemed to be looking through her…and then Iris realized that they _were, _and that his vision had shifted to where he was looking behind her. He seemed to be mesmerized by whatever was holding his vision. For some reason Iris felt an undecipherable darkness enshroud her soul at that moment, and she whispered, "Tobias? What is it?"

Tobias's face turned deathly pale and he began shaking again. "Oh, God…" he murmured. "I don't believe it…."

Iris's head snapped around, just in time to see none other than the Commander Breyman materialize out of the dark, gloomy mist, his yellow-eyed black wolf dæmon bristling by his side. He was dressed in a black trench coat and had his sniper rifle strapped to his back, and he advanced quite deliberately upon the two quaking children. Iris's eyes filled with terror, and she clung to Tobias as he came closer and closer, taking his time.

Mist swirled around the dark scene, and Tobias felt his insides go cold. Aerotsierma crawled under his shirt, shaking. "Iris…" Tobias whispered. "Run."

The two children leapt up from the ground, taking off down the road and running as fast as they could. Immediately they heard a snarl and a growl as the black wolf sped after them, and a metallic clink and a whoosh as Breyman unslung his gun and began to chase them.

Bolting through the dark swirling mists, Tobias and Iris sped along side by side, hearts straining against their chests, ragged breath tearing from their lungs. Panic swept through both of them as well as puzzlement and confusion. How the hell did he travel through the worlds?!

But that at the moment was not a necessary thing to ponder upon, as they tore haphazardly down the streets, leaping over trash barrels and speeding through puddles, oblivious to all around them in their terror. Into the darkness they blindly ran, tendrils of mist swirling behind them, the sound of Breyman running behind them highly audible even against the nightly Oxford travel noise.

And they knew that he was gaining on them.

Finally Tobias realized that they couldn't outrun him and faced the fact that he would have to fight.

Nonetheless, he kept on going until he felt his heart would burst, and Iris screamed in unimaginable pain as Breyman's dæmon leapt from behind upon her caracal, digging her sharp canine teeth into his shoulders. She fell upon the ground, gasping for breath, and Tobias spun quickly around, snarling with rage and hatred.

Aerotsierma leapt upon the wolf, but she was far too small to put up much of a fight. The caracal fought back hard, clawed paws going fwap-fwap-fwap, seeking out the eyes of his assailant, but to little avail. Finally Tobias got seriously pissed and, forgetting the universal taboo in order to save his friend, kicked the wolf hard in the side. She whimpered and snapped at him, and he struck her hard in the face. 

At that moment Breyman caught up with the fray, doubling over as his dæmon cringed away from the attacks of Tobias and the fox and caracal. The wolf leapt up away from the assails and fled back to her human, snarling in anger and pain. When Breyman looked up, his face was dark and his eyes flashed with hatred. "I'll _kill _you for that, you worthless piece of trash!"

He lunged at Tobias, swinging his gun. The metal barrel hit a glancing blow to his temple before he could even think about dodging, and stars exploded in his head as colors danced before his eyes. Breyman was about to strike again, but Tobias, ignoring the pain, fell backwards lightly, catching himself on his hands and striking upward with a powerful kick that connected solidly with Breyman's groin.

In the brief amount of time that Dune's right-hand-man spent doubled over holding himself and moaning, Tobias and Iris sprinted away again. The boy briefly thought to read Breyman's mind, but was afraid that his using his Forthsight again might fill his head with excruciating pain once more, so he avoided the temptation. Suddenly Tobias heard a metallic noise from behind him, and the next thing he knew, a gunshot sounded and Tobias could feel the whoosh of it as the bullet sped past his ear. 

"Iris! He's shooting at us!" He screamed as they continued running.

"No way! I didn't realize that!" She retorted, tingeing her terror with sarcasm. 

Tobias knew that it was inevitable, but he still hoped and prayed that it wouldn't happen. Mostly, he just hoped and prayed that it wouldn't be Iris.

And it wasn't. 

He heard the second gunshot just moments before his head exploded in pain for the second time that night. Iris screamed and caught him as he stumbled over his own feet and fell, splattered with blood. Tobias moaned, but the pain wasn't all that excruciating this time…it was almost as if he was floating, and he couldn't feel anything at all…

Iris was sobbing. "No! Damn it all, no! Just when I've found you, you can't…"

Tobias's eyes flickered, and he tried to say something, but all that escaped his lips was a painful groan. Dark blood oozed from the back of his head and onto Iris's lap and the sidewalk. Aerotsierma lay in a twisted heap at his side…and to Iris's horror, she was flickering slightly…

She lay his head down and sprung up when Breyman and his wolf approached. He was smiling, his dark eyes shining in victory. She lunged at him, screaming, "I'll kill you!" but Breyman was far quicker: he swung his rifle hard at her legs. She screamed, the sickening crunch of her kneecaps reaching her ears. She collapsed upon the ground, and Breyman stepped over her toward the prostrate Tobias.

He reached down, picked him up, and slung him over his shoulder, oblivious to the blood that trickled down his back from Tobias's head wound. His wolf dæmon picked up the fading Aerotsierma by the scruff of her neck and followed her master as he dematerialized once more into the gloom, the hate-filled, grief-ridden cries of Iris still ringing in his ears.

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(Author's Note: Sorry about no Will and Lyra in this chapter! They'll be in the next one, I swear! Honest! And I'll try my best to get the next chapter out sooner. I know this one took a loooong time…*ducks as rotten fruit is thrown*…but I've been really busy lately! Sorry! Anyway, the next chapter SHOULD be out by next weekend, and don't forget to send your usual death threats, and please review on your way out! Thanks!)


	12. Will On His Own

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(Author's Note: Well, since fanfiction.net is supposedly taking down the lists section (I am **eternally **bitter), I figure that this story is only thing worth crap on my account, thus, here's the twelfth chapter! Oh, and by the way, I lied, and I apologize. There's no Lyra in this chapter. It was just too soon to introduce her; I'm sorry! *ducks rotten fruit again* Oh well, she'll probably be in the next chapter. Or the next. *cough* Anyway, read on! Enjoy!)

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CHAPTER TWELVE--Will on His Own

Will Parry sat bolt upright at the bloodcurdling, pain-filled scream that echoed suddenly through his brain.

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It was a dream, he told himself adamantly. _Just a dream._

But he was shaking, and his skin was pale and clammy with the cold sweat of undeniable fright. The dream…it had been so lifelike…someone had been calling out for help…amidst an eerie, ominous scene of darkness and swirling mist…and blood…

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Will! Will, help me!

Will jolted visibly, clutching his head. Those cries! He heard them, but he didn't…it was as if they were _inside _his head, somehow…

His beautiful black cat dæmon Kirjava uncurled from her place at his side and whispered, "What is it, Will? What's going on?" Will opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment…

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Will!

Still pale and shaking, he leapt out of his bed. Kirjava followed; this time, she too had heard the voice. Will stared shakily into darkness.

"Lyra?"

Was it possible? Analogous fear and hope rose in his heart, and for a moment he questioned his sanity. Was it possible that he missed her so much that she was talking to him in his own mind? Will knew that he had always been rather down-to-earth…but nonetheless, he was hearing _voices _in his head!

Never one to panic, Will decided that in order to understand what was going on, he must listen carefully, pay attention, and let the voice say what it needed to say.

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Will. Please help me. I need your help. Please come! 

For a brief moment, into Will's mind leapt a familiar face. Familiar, but just barely…that girl that he had just met yesterday, with the tawny cat dæmon! It was her!

"Iris!"

His sudden, ragged cry rent through the still blackness of his bedroom. A second later, it responded again. 

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"Please help me, Will. I need your help. Find me. I won't make it…"

Realization hit him like a thunderbolt. Of course. The Forthsight! Fear for his newfound friend's safety welled in him, and his natural loyal and determined attitude soon had him groping around his room for a jacket, some shoes, and a flashlight. As soon as he found the articles, he cried out, "I'm coming, Iris, don't worry!"

In his sudden outbursts, he had forgotten to be quiet, and the next thing he knew, Dr. Mary Malone burst in through his bedroom door. She was fully outfitted in a blue robe and fluffy slippers. Visible only to Will and herself, her small bird dæmon perched sleepily on her shoulder.

Over the last year that Will and his mother had moved in with her, Mary had grown quite close to the young boy. After all, they had been through things that no one else could understand. She _was _the only other human from his world with a dæmon. She had invited them to move in with her to help Will take care of his still slightly mentally disturbed mother, and had been there ever since.

"Will? What's going on? Are you alright?"

Will was momentarily startled, and replied hastily, "Yes, yes, I'm fine, I'm--"

"No, you're not," the former physicist replied in a rather authoritative tone of voice. "Why do you have shoes on? And a coat? And a flashlight? Will, what's going on?"

Will needed to get out, he needed to help Iris, and he knew that the only way to get past Mary was to tell her the truth. "It's a long story, but you have to trust me. Is mum asleep?"

Mary, too stunned and curious to speak, merely nodded.

"Okay then. Get dressed and come with me. There's something very important and dire going on, and you must trust my judgment. I'll explain on the way."

*

The rain had started again, only lightly drizzling but still enough to keep Iris awake during the wee hours of the morning. Still enshrouded in darkness, she had long since used up the last of her energy to send out a message to the only one who could help her now, the boy that her and Tobias had met the very night before…one of the only two people in this world with a dæmon. 

Then she had drifted into a strange half-delirious frame of mind, the only tangible emotions in her mind the pain and fear for Tobias, who she had last seen bloody and unconscious, his beautiful fox dæmon fading and flickering…

Immediately she jolted back into conscious at this thought, noticing at once that it had begun to rain again. She couldn't move at all: as both of her kneecaps were broken, she couldn't hope to stand, and had no energy left anyway from sending out a desperate message to Will. Lying as she was in the dirt near the back of a rather small, dark alley, no one passed through the rain that night near her, so no one saw her at all. She was utterly alone, in terrible pain, and drifting in and out of consciousness. Her caracal dæmon was curled up next to her, providing her with all the warmth that he possibly could, even though his soft, tawny coat was soaked through and he too was very weak, as his human's pain was carried over into him, as well.

After what seemed like an eternity, Iris's head snapped up as a beam of foggy light danced into the alley, followed by two urgent voices. One was unmistakably Will's: strong and determined. The other was a woman's voice…

"Iris! Oh, God, what happened? Are you alright?"

Will came into view, a dark, square-shouldered shadow against the alley wall. An older woman followed him closely. He rushed over to Iris immediately, and she gasped out painfully…"It was Breyman. He came and took Tobias away. He shot him…in the head…lots of blood….I think he might be dead…"

Will's face turned pale, and he said, "Where did he take him?"

Iris's eyes brimmed with tears. "I don't know," she said shakily. Will replied, "What happened to you? Can you stand?"

Iris didn't even try. "No, I can't. It hurts so bad….he broke both my kneecaps. I can't stand, Will; help me."

There was immeasurable fear and pain in her shaky voice. The woman came over to her and knelt down next to her. Iris immediately saw that she was the other one with the dæmon: a small bird was perched on her shoulder. She briefly inspected the bruises on Iris's legs and said, "Yes, this looks pretty serious. I'm no medical doctor, but I say that we need to get you to a hospital, and fast."

Iris could feel herself getting even weaker. "Will," she said softly, "is this your mother?"

Will smiled wryly. "No, this is Mary Malone, an old friend of mine."

Mary knelt and picked Iris up. She was surprisingly light. "Less of the 'old', Will." She said, a slight bit of humor in her voice. In Iris's last fleeting moments of consciousness before she drifted off from the pain and fatigue, she decided that she and Mary would definitely get along.

On the way there, following Iris's directions, Will had explained everything to Mary as quickly and concisely as he could. Now, in a much more serious, grave tone, Mary said, "Will, if everything you say is true, and I don't doubt you, then you need to go after your friend Tobias before it's too late."

Will bit his lip and nodded. Mary placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, saying, "I trust you. You've been through enough already for me to trust you, Will, just promise me you'll be careful…" Will nodded, setting his jaw. "I promise. Tell mum that I'm staying at a friend's house, okay?"

Mary returned the nod, and Will immediately took off down the dark, misty alley in the direction that Tobias had been taken in. Will could easily tell the direction, anyway…the rain hadn't been strong enough to fully wash away the tell-tale trail of blood.

Will was a loner. He had been born a loner, and would die one, and he knew it. He had a task to complete, and it was his job to see to it that it was done. Not only was a friend in mortal danger, but that friend was his key to Lyra, as well. It was a task that he would not let himself fail, under any circumstances.

Oxford was an entirely different place at night: dark, quiet and mysterious. When the trail of blood was too thin to be seen any longer, or had been washed away by the rain, Will ran by his instincts, which had never failed him before. Inexplicably, they led him straight to the very place where he had first met Iris and Tobias. As he reached the intersection, he skidded to a halt and stared open-mouthed at what he saw. 

The window that the two Forthsighted had appeared from was open, and a sparkling star-studded sky shone in from the other side.

This was impossible! There had been no evidence of a window when Will had first met them at that very spot. Tobias had long since closed it up. So how on earth was it possibly open now?! Will didn't dwell on it; there was no time. He gathered up his courage and leapt through the window.

---

__

(Author's Note: *In deep, announcer-like voice:* What shall Will find on the other side of the window? How did Breyman figure out how to travel between the worlds? What important parts will Mary and Iris play? When will Lyra **really **come into the story? And above all, is Tobias dead? Find out next time in the upcoming installment of The Only Ones Left!_)_


	13. Mary's Invention

_(Author's Note: Don't kill me. It didn't take **that **long this time…*coughs*…anyway, please read now, and don't throw any rotten fruit at me. It doesn't help. Oh, by the way, the spacing is all screwed up because ff.net was being bitchy with the html and I was too lazy to figure out how to fix it. So just deal with it.)_

_---_

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN-Mary's Invention**

_"No. Not again!"_

Tobias's eyes flickered briefly as he came to, clutching his dæmon tightly to him. He couldn't see, as his vision was either destroyed or totally obscured by blood (he couldn't tell which) and his head didn't hurt at all; in fact, he couldn't feel anything throughout his entire body except his hands and arms, which were slick with blood. The only way that he knew he was alive was from an undefined rhythmic thumping noise and the swishing of wind, together with the comforting warmth of Aerotsierma's fur at his hands. 

He tried to talk, but couldn't possibly command his vocal cords to respond. He had no idea where he was or what was going on until Aerotsierma spoke to him in his mind.

Tobias, you're paralyzed. Don't even try to move.

Tobias spoke back, his mind in a whirl. What happened, Aero? Where are we?

Breyman has you slung over his shoulder. It's the middle of the night and he's carrying you back to Dunestone, most likely. 

Pain and panic enveloped Tobias's heart. Oh, Aero, no… He paused for a moment, thinking. What happened to Iris?

Aerotsierma responded. I'm not sure; we were blacked out by that time, but I think that Breyman might've killed her. Hurt her pretty bad, anyway.

Not saying another word, Tobias used his powerful Forthsight to seek out Iris's essence and touch her mind with his. He finally found her in the mass of confusing entities; sick with fright and worry, and in quite a bit of pain, unable to stand.

Tobias, don't!

But it was too late. Tobias used the power of his gift to heal Iris across the barrier of worlds, the exhaustion of the feat bringing him once more close to the brink of death.

*

"Oh my God!"

Mary jumped at the sudden outburst and exclaimed, "What's the matter? Did I hurt you?"

Iris struggled from Mary's grasp, saying, "No, it's gone! I don't believe it! I thought it had just gone numb, but it's gone! Completely!"

"You're mad; that's impossible. We should still take you to a doctor."

Mary put Iris down and they stood together in a dark street of Oxford. "No, Ms. Malone, I'm fine. Tobias healed me."

"He _healed _you? He isn't even here! That's impossible."

"No, you don't understand. The Forthsight; he is The One! With his power, he can do almost anything that his heart, will and conscience allow. He must've sensed my pain even across the barrier of the worlds, and healed me…"

Tears sprang to her eyes, but she quickly whisked them away. Her dæmon sat close by her feet, and nuzzled her gently. "He's probably dead now," she whispered.

Mary placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't give up so quickly. If Tobias is anything like I think he is, he has a will of stone and a heart of gold. He won't give in so easily. We have to help him in whatever way we can, though. We need to figure out what our next course of action shall be."

Iris nodded bravely and said, "What do you think we should do?"

"Well, I suppose that we need to find a way to gather help. We need Lyra…we badly need her bravery as well as her alethiometer. I take it that you have no way of traveling through the worlds yourself?"

"No, of course not. I think that Tobias might have an alternative way, though; I mean, he did write the formula down and everything, he might—"

"Formula? What formula?"

Iris shook her head like it didn't matter. "Nothing, just Tobias thinks that the Forthsight isn't magic or anything, but it's an actually physical process that can be explained. He showed Will last night…he wrote down all these weird equations that apparently explained how the windows can be made—"

Mary, wide-eyed, exclaimed, "Seriously! How old is he, now? He actually explained it with equations? Is he some sort of child prodigy or something?"

Iris nodded. "He's a mathematical genius, as far as I'm concerned. He—" But Mary interrupted, excitement dancing in her eyes. "You don't happen to remember what these equations were, do you?" Iris laughed. "I have no clue what any of it meant, trust me. However, he did leave the paper he wrote it down on in the coffee shop last night…"

*

As the first rosy hews of dawn crept over the green, distant horizon, Will felt himself growing sluggish. All night he'd been running, following Breyman's trail. The terrain was gentle for the most part…sandy and grassy with gentle hills for the most part…but Will was on no food, no sleep, and a lot of anxiety. 

"Will. You have to stop."

Jogging still, he glanced at his dæmon, who was gracefully loping beside him. "I can't, Kir. I have to save Tobias; he's in mortal danger and he's my only link to Lyra!"

Kirjava put the brakes on and came to a halt, forcing her human to stop as well. "Will, do you honestly think that you're befriending and helping these poor people just to have them suit your own needs?"

Will glared at the beautiful black cat. "Of course not. I'm going to do my best to help them bring down their enemy, too. It's quite evident that they need my help very badly."

"Of course they do! Seeing Lyra is just a side benefit. You should be doing this to help _them, _not because you want to see Lyra. That should come after."

Will slammed his fist against a tree. "I know that, damn it! Don't tell me that you don't miss Pan, though!" His dæmon gently nuzzled his hand. "Of course I do, Will, more than just about anything. But we made a promise, and as much as we long to see Lyra and Pan, we have to help Tobias and Iris for the sake of helping them. They shouldn't be thought of as our link to Lyra and Pan, but as allies against evil. They're desperate for help; they need us."

Will sighed. "You're right, Kir. We have to do everything we can to help them; then, if everything turns out alright in the end, we can see Lyra."

"Yes. That's more like it. Now we need rest, Will, before we can go on. You find water; I'll find food. We'll take a quick break and be back on the trail in an hour or so."

*

Three Hours Later 

Iris waited while Mary Malone sat on her couch, poring over the blank newspaper sheet on which Tobias had written his equations. Once in a while she'd murmur, "I don't believe this" or "this is absurd" or "this is _incredible!_" Her bird dæmon paced the armrest constantly, analogous to Iris's dæmon, who was pacing the opposite direction on the rug. 

Finally, not saying a word, she jumped up and whisked away to her computer. Iris followed, watching intently. "This program I have…it might have some idea of how to use this incredible information…"

Mary quickly typed in some information and then carefully copied the equations into the computer. She took a seat…and there she stayed for hours, writing, pondering, and typing. She contacted several of her colleagues and eventually went up to her old lab, searching for an answer.

She came back with a contraption that she had quickly put together in her lab, and hooked it up to the computer. After several more hours of daunting work, Iris came quickly awake on the couch as Mary exclaimed, "I've got it! It works!"

Iris sleepily stumbled into the computer room, just in time to see a blinding white flash of light and Mary stumbling backwards in surprise and fright. The computer screen flickered, shortly followed by the lights, and then the electricity shut down, and the blinding light subsided.

And in its place was a window through the worlds.

Mary grinned almost manically. "It worked! I don't believe it! It worked!"

The house was dark, as the electricity had shut down. But there was light from the other side of the window…golden, late afternoon light filtered through a tree strewn hilly landscape.

Iris stared open-mouthed at the physicist. "Where…what…. whose world is this? Where are we going?"

But Mary had already fled away to the kitchen to quickly gather supplies. "Lyra's world, Iris. We're going to Lyra's world!"

Iris continued staring open-mouthed. Her mind was a blur. So much had happened in the last few days that she felt like her mind would explode soon. Her heart thumped with pain and worry at Tobias's fate, but also within surged excitement and the lust for adventure. "Lyra's world?" she said. "Will's friend, Lyra? He'll be so happy to see her…"

Mary returned with two small satchels of food. "That's for sure. I just hope that they'll be able to stay together, somehow…according to Tobias's equations, space does not exist between the two worlds when a window is created, therefore no Specter emerges. I only hope that this is true…it _has _to be, otherwise we'd probably have been attacked by now…"

Iris had very little idea of what she was talking about, but inquired nonetheless, "And Lyra will be able to help us?" Mary handed Iris a satchel. "I hope so. She would definitely be a terrific asset to have, anyway. She has this instrument, this 'truth meter' that could tell us what to do…but she had lost the power to use it just before we parted. I can only hope that she's taught herself at least a little bit of how to use it once more. If Will can't find and rescue Tobias, she's our only hope."

She took a deep breath and faced the dazzlingly bright window through the worlds that hung in midair before her. "Alright, Iris, let's go."

_---_

_(Author's Note: Soooo, whatchya think? Like it, no? Lyra will **definitely **be in the next chapter. Promise. *Ducks a flying rotten cantaloupe* No, I'm totally serious this time! Don't forget to review now.)___


	14. Defining Moment

_(Author's Note: Whee-hee! Didn't think I could do it, huh? Get two chapters out in a row like that! Well I did it, and this is a damn long 'un, too. And I think it's one of the best chapters so far. A lot will be covered, and someone dies. It's pretty damn dark and bloody too, so if you're of weak constitution, you've been warned. Anyhoo, read and review! Yay!)_

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN—Defining Moment**

Lyra couldn't sleep. 

All night she had sat up, awake, in her dormitory bed, staring out the window at the dark school ground. She didn't usually have trouble like this, but for some reason sleep was eluding her altogether. Maybe it was because of the fact that midsummer's day was a mere three sunrises away and that she had been thinking even more about Will than usual. Or maybe it was because exams were soon, and she hadn't been studying much lately. Or perhaps it was because of the fact that she was beginning to learn more and more with the alethiometer every day, and spent more time on improving her sketchy skills than studying. 

Most likely, however, it was an undefined combination of all three, although mostly it had to be because in just a few days, it would be her and Will's two-year anniversary of being apart. School was letting out soon, right after exams, and of course she'd be right there on the bench in the botanical garden of Oxford at noon on midsummer's day. In fact, she wouldn't miss it for the world. 

Not much had happened to Lyra in the nearly two years that she and Will had been apart. She had simply gone to school, had been compliant, for the most part forgetting her once wild ways. Being quiet and studious, she had done quite well in school and had devoted a large portion of her time to studying the alethiometer. She wanted more than anything to learn to use it with ease once more. She wanted so badly to ask it how Will was doing, and to keep up with him daily. She had ventured to ask it once, and it had replied…but she had been unable to read it very well and had been worried ever since. 

"Lyra? What's the matter?" 

Pantalaimon flowed over her bed like red-gold liquid fur and leapt lightly upon her shoulder, nuzzling the ear of her human. "Nothing, Pan. Nothing, and everything." 

She gazed out of the window into the dark, star-studded sky. It was nearly morning already; she couldn't believe it. She hadn't slept a wink, having been going through her alethiometer book all night. Her eyes were heavy and red-rimmed, but sleep still evaded her like smoke on the wind. She had to learn how to use it again. As mysterious and haunting as the feeling seemed, she almost knew that something was wrong. She had to figure out what it was, or it'd drive her insane. 

"You need to get some sleep." 

Sitting on the edge of her bed, Lyra glanced over her shoulder at the rowed beds against the wall beside her own, each with its own sleeping girl and her dæmon. Lyra shared her dormitory with several other girls; she was a friend to all of them but close friends with none. She hadn't been complete ever since parting with her Will. She knew that she'd have to move on, and every once in a while she'd go a whole day without thinking about him, but every night his face danced in her memories, and the reminiscent feeling of his touch tingled her hands, and a deep, painful nostalgia filled her soul. 

She sighed heavily and fiddled absent-mindedly with the black velvet bag that housed her alethiometer. She pulled it out and stared at the face in the dim grey light, thinking about asking it once more of Will, but afraid to for the answer she knew she'd not be able to decipher. Pantalaimon placed his small golden paws on her arm, whispering, "Lyra, this is getting ridiculous. It's almost morning…" 

Lyra shrugged. "Doesn't matter. We don't have classes tomorrow; it's Sunday." 

Pantalaimon saw that Lyra obviously didn't realize how much her own dæmon needed rest, and he was getting slightly miffed. "Lyra, please. You seriously need to put forth effort to moving on. It hurts me to see you like this…" 

Lyra turned to stare at her beloved dæmon in the semi darkness. "You miss Kirjava, don't you?" 

"Lyra, you know that I do. But that doesn't matter…regardless of how well they're doing, or how well they're not, you can't see Will again, and I cannot see Kir. That's the way it is. We promised each other that we'd move on. It's been almost two years now, Lyra." 

She ignored him, slowly withdrawing the heavy golden instrument from its bag and turned it over and over in her hands, staring at the dim reflection that flickered back at her. A thin pale face, dominated by intense blue bespectacled eyes and framed by soft golden hair. She briefly reflected upon the fact that hadn't changed a whole lot in the last few years, other than getting a bit taller and acquiring her glasses. As soon as Lyra thought this, glumly, Pan felt her thoughts and replied, "That isn't true, Lyra. You might not have noticed it, but I have, and you've changed more than you know." 

Lyra looked away. She knew what was coming. 

"That look of mischievous curiosity that once defined you as you is almost entirely gone, Lyra. The quirkiness and spontaneity that I loved so much in you is fading…you're giving up, aren't you? Fading." 

Lyra frowned and continued looking away, refusing to meet her dæmon's eyes. "I'm your soul, Lyra…" Pan continued, "And I feel like slowly but surely, you're losing touch with me."

She turned on him now, her blue eyes ablaze with indignation. "That's preposterous! You're all I have left, silly. We're no more apart than we ever have been." Lyra could see that her perpetual pain was hurting him, too, and that he thought part of her pain was his fault. "Pantalaimon, don't be ridiculous. I almost feel like part of me is missing, though. I loved him, Pan. Ever since that moment when he touched you and I touched Kirjava, I knew that I'd never feel the same about anyone…" 

Pan softened at these words and curled up around her neck, trying her beading tears with his soft flank. "I know exactly what you mean. But listen to me, Lyra. You're missing out on life because of this. We've been through so much for such a young age, you know. Lighten up and enjoy life; it's what we're here for." 

Lyra nodded slowly. "You're right, Pan. It's just so hard…I worry about him all the time…it's like he's part of my soul, too…like a second dæmon that was separated from me forever and will never be reunited with me." For a moment Lyra felt that Pan would be extremely miffed by these words, but he said nothing. 

"If I could just see him once more…" 

Pantalaimon blinked in the darkness, and said, "If you aren't sleepy, what are you going to do?" 

Lyra held her head in both hands. "I dunno, Pan. I want to get out of here…just get out…" 

Pan nuzzled her hand. "Then let's get out. It's been ages since we were outside at night…we can be back by dawn, can't we?" There was a hint of excitement in his voice. He wanted so badly to have a bit of the old Lyra back. She noticed his eagerness and smiled wanly. "Alright, Pan. Let's go play on the rooftops again, shall we? Just like old times." 

*

Just several kilometers away, and yet an entire world apart, Mary Malone and Iris stood outside the window that had been torn through the worlds. 

Mary couldn't believe what had just happened. It was ridiculous. Preposterous. She had just created a window through the worlds using materials she had found lying around her lab, together with her computer programs…and that equation. It was a physicist's dream. She couldn't wait to meet Tobias…if he was still alive, that is. He had to be brilliant to come up that, and in such a small amount of time, as well. It was incredible. 

"Mary? Are you coming?" 

The physicist briefly snapped out of her reverie and nodded to Iris. "Yeah, just a moment…I'm thinking…"

Mary was torn; she wanted more than anything to venture through to Lyra's world (if that was, indeed, what it was) and to find her as soon as possible, but also she wanted to analyze this machine, and this equation especially, even more. She wanted to figure out exactly what it was, and what it did.

As for the machine, it wasn't much at all, really. It consisted of an incredibly powerful electromagnetic device and a mass of virtually indefinable wires, connected via USB to her processor. The electromagnetic had been so incredibly and inadvertently powerful that it had created a prodigious gravitational force and a vast magnetic field that had somehow (she wasn't yet sure how…) contained the massive gravity. All she knew was that somehow, inexplicably, this arrangement had been so powerful that it had created a sort of 'wormhole', a rip in the very fabric of space. But it was much more complicated than that—it wasn't like a black hole at all, but rather like a simple passage—and as a hole ripped open by the Forthsight worked, there was no space between the edges for Dust to escape and for Specters to materialize. Mary knew that the way it worked had something to do with the radiation emission, though—she figured they were X-rays but had no way of measuring it at the moment—but she was totally baffled over the apparent gravity issue. In fact, she was baffled over quite a bit of it. It all worked perfectly, and she had no idea how, but it had worked, and there, hanging like a jagged wound in the fabric of space before her, was the proof.

Mary was completely lost in thought. Her mind drifted to dozens of possible explanations for this phenomenon, each more crazy than the last. Had it something to do with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle? Wave mechanics were most certainly involved in this somehow; there was no other explanation. Perhaps the machine had somehow, inexplicably, created a scenario where the outcome of a random, 50/50 chance event was completely arbitrary until an observer analyzed the situation, and here she was, with Iris, two observers analyzing the situation and therefore forcing an outcome, breaking down the wave function by observing. Had it something to do with infinities? Singularities? Quantum indeterminacy? 

Or was this a phenomenon that could better be explained by the principles of relativity? She pondered another moment, briefly coming up with some nonsense about spherical systems and observational coordinates before the logic side of her brain nixed that, and she reached another conclusion. She knew that because of the vast gravitational force involved, it had to have relativistic implicated laws involved somehow, and yet because of the fact that wave functions and Planck's constant were obviously involved in Tobias's equations, it had to side with quantum mechanics, as well. But…but…that was impossible…

Mary's blood ran cold at the thought. Could it be? Could this little fifteen-year-old boy have come up with the principle of an equation that could lead to the unification of physics? It had to be possible! Mary didn't think that she'd see it in her lifetime, but this was startling evidence, and at the moment, anyway, there was no other explanation. Was the superstring theory correct? She paused in her thoughts. Did this even have anything to do with string theory? Quantum gravity?

Mary's brain clicked. Of course! A twisted form of string theory indeed, but string theory nonetheless. Dimensions wrapped within other dimensions…dozens, hundreds, millions of them? Impossible to tell. Calabi-Yau units…everything all wrapped up inside of everything else…twisted space-time…quantum gravity…infinities…singularities… 

Ugh. Mary's brain suddenly began to ache, and her thoughts turned to another mystery of the whole situation. 

The weirdest thing of all was that she had no idea what had compelled her to take these particular materials, as well as how to put them together, for she had practically no idea what she was doing. Her mind had been completely elsewhere, still analyzing that mysterious, brilliant equation. She had neither the time nor the knowledge to collect the materials needed. So how had she done it? What had made her do what she did?

"Mary? We don't have time! You can figure this all out when we get back…but right now, we have to find this Lyra you speak of! Tobias and Will may be in grave danger!" Iris stood right next to the window, about to go through, apprehension in her eyes.

The physicist snapped out of once again, saying, "I'm sorry; I was totally lost in thought. I'm coming; let me just set up the machine to hide the window until we return in case anyone stops by." 

How had she known? What had caused her to choose exactly the right materials out of all the thousands of electrical thingies in her lab? …Suddenly, she knew.

She smiled quietly to herself and whispered, "Thanks, Tobias," into the air before following Iris into Lyra's world.

*

Tobias, at the moment, was in need of far more than thanks. He was completely paralyzed, nearly dead, totally unconscious, and dreaming like never before. The flashbacks were haunting him worse than ever, this time of the day that he had escaped from Dunestone…something he had wanted to block from his mind forever, and yet was obviously determined to never let him forget. 

*

"Dad! No!" 

It was too late, of course. Tobias couldn't even look this time. Blood and tears streaked his face, and he couldn't even stand to witness the shadow dancing on the cell wall of his father arching his back in pain as the bullet was fired with an ear-splitting crack. Blood splattered the wall. His father screamed in agony like nothing ever fit for human ears.

They had stopped dragging the prisoners to the execution room long ago, becoming far too lax and lazy for that. Instead, they'd march to each cell with their rifles and pump them full of lead before the pleading eyes of their own families, and then force them to drag their loved one's body to the incinerator. 

Tobias crawled into as small of a ball as his chains would allow, nestling into the blood-soaked straw. Aerotsierma, shaking and bloody as well, pressed her small warm body against his as hard as she could. Tobias's father gurgled once and then laid still. His son watched his flickering shadow on the wall, sobbing soundlessly, and yet nonetheless listening to his father's last words inside his head.

_ "Tobias…my son…it wasn't your fault…please find a way to get out alive…avenge your mother…and your sister…kill Dune…"_

_ "Daddy, no! Don't die! Please! I'll not be able to get out alive…I'd be the last one…please, take me with you, let me die too…"_

_ "No! You won't die, my son. I have faith in you. Use the power of your Forthsight…you can do it…escape, find the window, build an army. The key is in the fastness, my son. The fastness!"_

Then he died. 

"No!" Tobias screamed and snarled like a rabid beast, straining at his chains as his father's dog dæmon began to slowly dematerialize and float away like dandelion seeds on a breeze. Breyman kicked his father's carcass and smiled maliciously at the young boy as his two henchmen jumped up to subdue him. The head sniper brought his face close to Tobias's, breathing rancid breath at the boy as he rasped, "I'd kill you myself, you little fuck, but since you're the last one left, Dune wants to have a little fun wit yer before he lets ya go." 

Quick as a flash, Breyman snapped his key out and unlocked Tobias's shackles, dragging him along the stony, dimly lit hallway, his mighty black wolf carefully carrying Aerotsierma's desperately struggling form by the nape of her neck. Tobias screamed, kicked, bit, punched and wept all the way to Dune's chamber. Breyman paused here, knocked upon the thick metal door once, and stood to attention. 

A quick, metallic voice echoed from within. "Bring him in!" 

Breyman pulled the heavy door open and kicked Tobias's limp form to the floor within the room. His wolf dæmon threw Aerotsierma in after him; she landed on the back of his prostrate form. The Sniper stood to attention for a moment before scuttling off to the Tyrant's shout of, "Dismissed!" 

The door slammed behind him. 

Tobias, scratched, bruised and bloody from his struggling, labored to his knees and looked around him. The chamber was pitch black save for three wall torches, which dimly flickered a dusty orange glare against the almost overwhelming darkness. The room was terribly cold and dank, and Tobias could've sworn that he heard spiders scuttling in the corners. Other than that, the only sound within the room was a low, raspy breathing coming from the corner.

"Tobias Bergen." 

The young boy whimpered in pain and fear. 

A shuffling sound reached his ears, and slowly but surely, he heard the Tyrant coming closer. His voice, sounding harsh, grating and commanding from the outside, now sounded sinuous, low and breathy. 

"You've never looked upon my face, have you, boy?" 

Tobias shook his head. His whole body was quaking terribly. 

The closer the Tyrant came, the more inhuman he sounded. His voice was like that of a snake…a twisted, hissing whisper. Like silk sliding over steel. 

"Do you know why it is that I've destroyed all of your kind?" 

Tobias was too frightened to answer. He had no need to, for the Tyrant continued talking in his low, hissing murmur. "Your kind made me like this. I don't sound human, do I? Foolish child; I'm not human at all." 

Tobias flinched. The closer Dune came, the more he felt like a dark, cold shadow was enveloping his soul. He unconsciously tried to move away, but he found that he couldn't. The Tyrant's head had ventured just enough into the dim, flickering light that Tobias could see his eyes…almond shaped and the color of liquid mercury, dancing with a million highlights, russet and gold and fire and ice. Dune's eyes locked with the young boy's, and Tobias felt like he had been paralyzed. He couldn't make himself move even if he focused all his attention on doing so. 

"I was attacked when I was very young. By your kind…your thieving, conniving, blood lusting brethren. They laughed at me. Tortured me. I wanted revenge more than anything. It was your kind that made me wry, Bergen. It was them that killed my soul." 

Tobias then realized why it was that he felt like a cold shadow was enveloping his very soul as the Tyrant approached. Sidney Dune had no dæmon. 

Suddenly, the inhuman beast lurched forward, grabbing Tobias's shoulders in a fierce, terrible grasp. Tobias screamed in pain as wicked, serrated reptilian claws pierced his flesh. He writhed and struggled, but nothing could free him of that horrendous grip. Aerotsierma barked and snarled, but dare not touch this soulless beast. 

Startlingly powerful, the Tyrant threw the young boy into the wall; his head cracked against it with a sickening thud. The sinuous, snakelike voice of Dune hissed in victory. "You wonder why I'm so powerful, little boy? I may not have a soul, but I've become one with my own Death. He has made me strong, and now, I shall never die." He reared up to his full height, and Tobias could have sworn that his shadow had a shadow of its own.

Tobias wiped blood from his face and tried to stand, but he was too woozy from the injury and staggered painfully. He saw the dark form of his tormentor approaching him, but could still see no more than his terrible, terrible eyes. "I want to hurt you more than anything. No pleasure I shall derive in your death, little boy. I want to have your pain immortalized like mine was."

"Tobias!" Aerotsierma howled in fright as a scaly, clawed hand whipped out at her. She leapt onto her human's shoulders, but not quickly enough. Dune lurched forward, his all-consuming shadow causing Tobias to falter. The Tyrant snatched the fox dæmon by her tail and in one swift, powerful movement had her pinned against the wall, one three-fingered scaled claw pushing harder and harder at her heaving chest. Tobias doubled over in pain, but it wasn't just pain, either…it was the indescribably sickening feeling of a soulless being touching his very soul.

Still pinning Aero against the dark stone wall, he brought his other claw forward in fierce, gleaming metallic arc, plunging the serrated daggers into the flesh of Tobias's dæmon. The boy gave an unholy wail, clutching at his breast, and Aerotsierma was too horrified and violated to make a sound. The Tyrant laughed a wicked, hissing laugh and withdrew his metallic claws. They gleamed bright red in the flickering light.

Again and again he brought forth those claws, plunging them deeper and deeper each time, extricating a noise from Tobias each time that sounded like an animal dying. Aerotsierma's once beautiful, soft body was dripping and encrusted with blood, her pointed ears tattered, her white-tipped brush tail streaked with crimson. 

And still the Tyrant plunged those claws. Deeper and deeper, twisting them around in intricate patterns, groping through her very flesh and veins. 

Tobias was literally in hysterics. As all children, he and his dæmon had tried long ago to see how far they could separate without causing pain, always to reunite happily with a rush of joy within. Now, however, the hint of pain felt then was magnified an infinite number of times, as a soulless being was not only touching his soul, which would have been bad enough on its own, but was ravaging it as well. Destroying it.

What would happen if a dæmon died before a human? Would the human flicker and dematerialize at death? Tobias wasn't going to find out. The pain, rage and grief rose to indescribable levels within him until it exploded. "No! I'll kill you!"

Tobias knew that this was it. This was the defining moment of all the anger and hate caused within him during his entire life.

Tobias's Forthsight powers exploded within his mind, causing bones to shatter inside the Tyrant's body. (Tobias, at the time, didn't know of his gift yet; he didn't know he was The One.) Dune's cries shattered the dim, flickering chamber, and he reeled back, dropping Aerotsierma in a bloody heap on the stone floor. But Tobias wasn't finished. He flung himself at the strange soulless beast, pummeling him with his fists, shattering him with his mind. Then he turned, streaked with blood and tears, and hobbled to Aerotsierma. He carefully picked her up, and then lurched at the door. The lock burst in his hand; he swung the door open and fled.

The sinuous hissing sounds from the Tyrant quite suddenly turned to piercing, dirge-like shrieks. "Breyman! Stop him! Stop him!"

The eerie cries reverberated inside the narrow chambers of Dunestone, as well as within Tobias's fevered mind as he ran blindly down the corridors, a half-dozen armed men on his heels. 

*

Will awoke in a cold sweat. The dream had been in his head, as well. 

*

It was warm and sunny when Breyman came to a halt that evening. Unaware that he was being followed, he took his time, whistling as he injected Tobias with a serum that would keep him alive until further notice, in a sort of coma. He then carelessly flung the limp form of the young boy near a tree and went about starting a small fire to take warmth by while rifling through his back for evening victuals. He was almost home to Dunestone, so he had naught to worry about.

It was then that Will struck like a thunderbolt.

The branch hit Breyman before he knew what was going on. Dazed and throbbing, he fell to his knees, blindly groping for his sniper rifle, but it was out of reach. He looked up, blinking in pain, to see a tall, grim-jawed, stone-eyed boy staring back at him, tears on his face.

"How could you and your kind do that to him? How? What sort of vile piece of shit would do that to another human being?"

He gave no time for the Sniper to respond. _Whack! Whump! Crack!_ The heavy hornbeam branch fell again and again, each blow harder than the last, to the Breyman's skull. The lead Sniper's black wolf dæmon leapt up, snarling, only to be met in midair by a thick branch. The hornbeam connected solidly with her jaw, throwing her to the ground.

Fueled by grief and rage, Will fought with all he was worth. Eventually Breyman regained his orientation and leapt up at Will, brandishing a long, wicked dagger that he had drawn from within his trench coat. He skillfully thrust it at Will, but it was blocked by his makeshift stave. Thrust, parry, thrust thrust thrust, parry parry, the two highly adept combatants whirled around in a lethal dance of death, Will taking defense more than anything, having no real weapon, but Breyman's blade never tasting blood. 

Finally, however, the Sniper's battle-hardened muscles propelled him upward at an advantageous angle and pinned Will against a tree. He ducked swiftly at the dagger blow, however, and jammed both feet hard into Breyman's knees. The Sniper went down with an "Ooomph!" but was up again in seconds, spinning in a perfect arc, disarming Will entirely. The hornbeam stave flew several feet and stood quivering upright in the loam, fully out of Will's reach.

Breyman grinned his characteristic wicked grin and positioned the long knife at Will's heart, clutching the hilt with both hands. But the Sniper had underestimated the grief and fury that the young boy was fueled by; Will spat in his face and grasped Breyman's clasped fists in a vision-defying swift movement. His grip was as tight as death, and slowly but surely he turned Breyman's hands until the dagger was pointed at his own heart.

Breyman's look of triumph vanished when he found that he could not break Will's grip regardless of what he did, and changed to a look of pleading submission. The Sniper had realized that the unthinkable had happened: he had lost. Bargaining was his only way out now. "I'm sorry, don't kill me, you can take him, have it all, take—_Uugghhh."_

But the young boy was not to be bargained with.

Will stepped back, allowing Breyman's body to fall forward and away from him. He tugged the dagger, which had been submerged up to its hilt, from the former Sniper's heart and wiped it contemptuously on his mangled black trench coat. He gave the body a final kick and stepped over it, quickly moving toward Tobias's prone form as the black wolf dæmon, in a mid-air leap at Kirjava, vanished and was carried away like smoke on the wind.

As Will bent to tend to his comatose friend, he was unaware that we was less than a league from Dunestone itself, and that a squad of a score of snipers was already on its way.

---

_ (Author's Note: Whew, that was long! Gah, it's almost one a.m. now. I'm off to bed. Hope you enjoyed that sucker; don't forget to review!)_


	15. Taste Insanity

_(Author's Note: Sorry, once again, that this has taken me so long. I have a serious disorder, though. I think it's a disease. It's called "Terribly Incurable Laziness" (TIL) and I have a massive case of it, and for that I apologize. Anyway...this chapter is very...very...strange. And slightly disturbing. Yeah, it's pretty screwed up, but I wrote it at five thirty in the morning on no sleep, okay?! Oh, if it really sucks THAT bad let me know, and I will take it down and fix it, okay? Anyway...erm...enjoy. Or try to, anyway. Or lie in your review and pretend to have. Thankies! ^_^)_

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN--Taste Insanity**

When Will stood up, he was immediately overwhelmed by a dizzy, sick feeling that spread upward through his body like a disease, finding refuge as a dull, throbbing beat in his brain. He had killed a man, and it wasn't his first time. He hadn't gotten used to the feeling.

He was tired from the fight, having eaten very little and having run quite a bit. Spots danced before his eyes and the blood rushed to his head. He stared at his hands, covered in Breyman's blood, as if totally confused and perplexed. He had death on his hands, and although he knew that he had saved his friend's life, it wasn't a good feeling. He wiped his blood on Breyman's trench coat and shuddered fitfully. After pushing his sweaty hair from his face and taking one last grim look at the dead body of the Sniper, he turned toward the limp, seemingly comatose figure of Tobias Bergen, crumpled carelessly on a bed of pine needles beneath a conifer.

Will did not know what to do. Regardless of any efforts he put forth, he could not get Tobias to do so much as flicker an eyelid. He could feel his pulse, could hear his shallow breathing--and even more comforting, could see his fox daemon, curled in a tight red ball at his shoulder--but had no idea how to get the boy to awaken.

Panic rose within Will. He knew that Breyman had done something to him, and carelessly--stupidly--Will had killed him before he knew what to do. Hopeless frustration pushed aside the panic. He was many miles from the window, now--how could he hope to drag Tobias all that way before he was found by others of the Sniper's kind? He could never carry him--though Tobias was slim, he probably weighed at least as much as Will did.

Finally Will forced himself to push aside his lingering thoughts of death and desperation, allowing the more rational side of his brain to take control. Breyman had had a rations pack--perhaps there was something that could revive Tobias in there.

There wasn't much at all in the pack--only a single empty syringe and enough victuals, perhaps, to last the man another day or so, which told Will, to his anxiety, that they must be very close to Breyman's intended destination. However, there was nothing of seeming use in Breyman's bag other than the food. Will turned and cast an eye toward the prone, motionless form of the man. Perhaps there was something in his pockets that could be used. 

Will shrugged the black trench coat from the dead man and proceeded to search the rather voluminous pockets. Jackpot--the first one he searched contained a tiny vial of a murky-looking amber liquid. It was, however, unmarked.

The young boy found himself in quite a dilemma--this mystery serum was the only thing that he could find, and yet it might be terribly fatal, for all he knew. Kirjava, sensing the terrible doubt in his mind, nuzzled her human and said, "I wouldn't, Will. What if it kills him? We have no idea what's in that concoction."

Will furrowed his brow, gazing at the empty syringe, then at the amber fluid. "I don't know, Kirjava..." The black cat's head suddenly snapped up, her ears swiveling like tiny satellite dishes. "What's the matter, Kir?" Will inquired softly, listening intently.

"I'm not sure...I hear something, carried on the breeze."

Will's gaze was drawn inexorably up the mighty hill at which he was at the foot of. To his ultimate and abject horror, there stood a man, at the summit of the rise, shading his eyes against the sun and wearing the same uniform as Breyman had been.

Fear and loathing rose within Will, and he drew the syringe forth with a single, quick movement. "Will!" He suddenly found a silky black paw on his wrist, but shrugged it off. "I have to, Kir. It's our only hope."

His daemon saw the man, now, too. She flattened her ears against her head and said, "Will, if it kills him..." But her human shook his head. "It won't. Why else would he have only been carrying this one serum if it weren't to counteract the sleeping one? He didn't intend for Tobias to be in a coma forever, did he?"

Will withdrew the vial of amber fluid, and plunged the syringe into the top of it, drawing a full dosage. "I have to make a decision, Kir; there isn't much time. If I'm wrong, he would die anyway, so it's worth a shot, right? My heart says one thing, my mind says another--I'm just going to ignore them both and go with my instinct, this time."

For a moment Will thought that his daemon would disagree with him to the point of causing him bodily harm to get him to come to his senses, but to his surprise, Kirjava closed her eyes and nodded, placing both paws on his arm. "I stand by your decision, Will." And that was all she would say.

---

At the top of the hill, Second-In-Command Sniper Westing caught sight of the trio at the foot. He shaded his eyes against the evening sun and smiled to himself. He could see a promotion on the horizon. Especially since Breyman, from his vantage point, at least, appeared to be dead. His daemon, an incredibly scrawny-looking leopard, purred deeply in the back of her throat, and Westing scratched her ears. "Look, my precious--fresh meat." The daemon licked her lips in delight at the prospect, and murmured, "Shall we fetch the others, or take this one for ourselves?" Westing smirked and unshouldered his gun. "Come on now, Perrith, you know me better than that."

Light as a shadow and slithery as a snake, Westing and his daemon prowled their way to the foot of the hill.

---

Will leaned over Tobias's head, closed his eyes, and emptied the serum into his neck without another thought. He quickly withdrew it and cast it away, then anxiously watched his friend, hoping for positive results. Tobias did not stir.

Kirjava's head snapped up once more, and she murmured, "Will...the man at the top of the hill is gone." Will knew that from the sound of the words, he should have been glad--but for some inexplicable reason, dread rose again within his soul. He looked around him, far more paranoid than what was classic Will, noticing the ever-increasing darkness and lengthening shadows on the hills. The sky was a faint russet-pinkish color, characterized by streaks of amber and gold where the sunlight had receded. In the sparse forestry regions that populated the hilly landscape, darkness was deepening in the trees and the wind was rustling through the pine needles--or was it only the wind? Twilight was approaching, and an ominous sense of foreboding enveloped Will's mind, causing him to shudder internally. 

"Kirjava--stay close," he murmured. She needed no second bidding.

Feeling a cold breeze ruffle his dark hair, Will turned back to the prostrate form of his friend. He was still unmoving, looking as still as death. He hardly even appeared to be breathing, now, and Will would have almost thought that he was indeed dead, if it wasn't for Aerotsierma, of course. Will stared at him, having no idea of what to do, his usually resolute facade replaced by a look of pleading hope. 

Finally, to his mixed surprise and joy, Tobias stirred: he jerked almost unnaturally, twitching frantically. Finally he began coughing, harder and harder until blood splattered the grass before him. Will helped him upright to a sitting position, then steadied him as he finished coughing and began shivering violently. At last his eyes opened and he stared up at his temporary savior. His daemon uncurled and flowed onto to her human's lap, pressing herself as close to Tobias as a daemon could possibly get. 

"Will..." he rasped painfully. "Am I...am I alive?"

Will was flooded with hope and relief. "Yes, Tobias, you're alive. You're safe, too, at least for the time being--Breyman is dead."

Will noticed the way that Tobias's head had been bandaged rather well, and was blood-soaked nonetheless. It took him a moment, with the terror and anxiety of the day distorting his short-term memory, to remember why--he had been shot in the head by Breyman's gun. Will felt a momentary spasm of nausea rising in him once more, but he quickly suppressed it and put it behind him. At least he was alive.

"Breyman? He's...he's dead? How? What happened? And how'd I get here? What's going on?"

For some reason, Will found himself reluctant to tell his friend what had happened, but he made himself tell him anyway. "Breyman shot you; I'm not sure if you remember or not, but that's what happened. You almost died--I'm sure of it, because we saw your daemon flickering--but you didn't; Breyman injected you with this stuff, apparently, that kept you alive and put you in a sort of coma. He took you through the worlds, all this way, and I followed him, determined to help you. When you had...that...that dream, the one about...Dune, trying to kill you...it filled me with such passionate rage that it allowed me the energy to catch up with Breyman and kill him."

Tobias closed his eyes. "Wow. You...you killed him? All by yourself?" Will, red-eyed and immensely tired, merely nodded. Tobias opened his eyes and smiled wryly. "Damn...that...that must've been some fight." Will shuddered, not responding.

At last he stood. "We have to get moving. Something's just over that hill, I know it, and I don't like it. We have a long way to go, so we best get started." Tobias nodded and got shakily to his feet. As soon as he did so, he stumbled awkwardly and fell, like a newborn colt just learning to walk. He lay in the grass for a moment, and then began giggling helplessly, unmoving. Will glared at him. "What the hell is the matter with you?"

Tobias rolled over, still smiling. "Nothing. This is just...so stupid. I can't believe the shit we're in." Will blinked. "What are you talking about?" Tobias crossed his arms behind his head. "Will, my friend, I really hate to disappoint you, and I hate to have made you come all this way to kill Breyman and rescue me, but I'm doomed; you know that, right? I can feel an evil mind not a hundred yards away. His name is Brian Westing and he has a leopard daemon; he's second in command to Breyman and he's hoping for a promotion when he brings me back to Sidney Dune."

Will stared wide-eyed at his friend. "Get up, damn you! We might be able to make it if we run!" Tobias, still lying in the grass, laughed once more. "You run for it, Will. You're fit. I have a hole in my head the size of a nickel and delayed reaction sensors in every nerve in my body. I can hardly stand, m'boy. I won't make it, nor do I wish to."

Raging frustration and frustrating rage spread through Will like wildfire. "What are you ON?! You can't...you can't DO this! I came all this way to help you, now I'll be damned if you're going to just lay down and die!"

Tobias shrugged. "Be damned, then."

Will flung himself to the ground and shook him by the shoulders violently, screaming into his face, "You were destined to save your world! You're the last remaining thing standing between your mortal enemy and the conquer of your world! I want to help you, but I can't help you if you won't help yourself!"

Quick as flash, the ironic humor fled from Tobias's eyes to be replaced by irrational indignance. "You don't want to help me. You just want to see your little friend that was left behind in another world."

Tobias could see how his insult stung Will, and almost regretted saying. But it didn't matter, anyway. Tobias was tired of the crap. He shouldn't have to put up with everything that was happening to him. Be easier, he decided, to just let the enemy take him. Will's eyes blazed down at Tobias, and he gritted through his teeth, "That isn't true." He remembered his conversation with Kirjava, and he KNEW it wasn't true, but there was no way to convince Tobias of that. Except that he knew that Tobias could see into his mind. Hadn't he promised not to look, though? Or was that just another cheap trick?

Will sat down on the grass next to the prone Tobias. "What the hell are you doing, Will? You can still run for it, you know." Will's voice betrayed his anger. "If you're not going to get your sorry ass up and come with me, then you're going to have to contend with the fact that I, too, am going to sit here like an ignoramus until the Sniper comes and kills us both."

Tobias propped himself up on one elbow. The grass was deliciously cool and he didn't want to leave it. "Don't do this, Will. You're throwing your life away by doing that."

Will's eyes blazed again at his friend. "Not much different from what you're doing, huh?" Tobias smirked. "This is different. You're a good person, and you've got someone waiting for you back at home who loves you. I have no one, and I deserve to die."

Will felt an uncharacteristic wave of pity flow through him, but he shook the emotion away and retorted, "Since nothing that you have done you did willingly or purposely, there's no way that you even come close to deserving to die. Now if you can do "anything" with that mind of yours, then I daresay you'll find a way to get us out of whatever trouble is coming to find us, won't you?" Tobias's head lolled back, grinning, and Will was certain that he saw a spark of insanity in the chosen one's eyes. "I'm far too tired, Will. Have you any idea how much blood I lost? There's no hope for me, now. None at all. That's why you have to run for it. Either way, I'm...I'm done for."

Will shook his head and whispered, "No. I won't let you die."

Tobias smiled at him. "There's nothing you can do." Will's eyes blazed anew. "We can take this guy. He's just one guy."

Tobias closed his eyes, laying his bloody head back in the grass. "Yeah, and he'll appear to your left in about thirty seconds."

Will backed up frightfully, looking around him. He leapt over to Breyman's body and snatched up the dagger that he had killed the Sniper with. It was no Subtle Knife, but it would have to do. Several seconds later, Sniper Westing burst out of the forest, grinning wickedly and in the process of lifting his gun. Westing was a quite a bit different, both in appearance and demeanor, than his predecessing Sniper had been: while Breyman was large and powerful, strong and cunning, Westing was all guile, all insidious, slithering, conniving snakery--like a weasel. And yet, he had that same look of conquest that Breyman had possessed--wicked, evil, grinning cruelty. 

Will's muscles were already coiled like a spring, and although he was deeply tired, he was not willing to go down without a fight. He knew that he didn't have that much of a chance, but by God, he would sell his life dearly.

He lunged at Westing, tucking into a roll just as the Sniper fired. The shot grazed Will's skull, not penetrating but drawing a long, thin line of blood through his dark hair. Will gasped at the stinging pain of it but made no other sound. His lunge having taken him at Westing's feet, he rolled over quickly and jabbed blindly up with the dagger. But Westing was quick, and Will's dagger found nothing but air.

Kirjava, meanwhile, was far quicker than the scrawny leopard, and what she lacked in power, she more than made up for in agility. The Sniper's daemon couldn't touch her.

Will, satisfied that his daemon would be safe, focused his attention on his adversary. The young boy was on his back, and found himself unable to get up in time before Westing had leapt into the air, both feet driving toward Will's chest. But the boy was quick; he rolled to the right and swung the dagger in a powerful arc, catching the Sniper in the calf. He howled in pain, and, by reflex more than anything, jabbed the barrel of his rifle into the side of Will's head.

Stars danced before Will's eyes, but he kept his cry of pain within his own head, where it reverberated and increased the blinding lacerations, if anything. Westing saw how effective his strike had been, and arced out again powerfully with the gun. Will ducked just in time, now, but he had neither the strength nor the energy to do anything more than avoid the blow. The rest was up to Westing.

The Sniper punched Will twice in the side of the head and then laid him out flat with a single blow to the knees. Will could hardly move. He knew that there was nothing more that he could do. Before he could blink the Sniper was over him, Breyman's old dagger raised in his fist, higher and higher. Then he brought it down in a gleaming flash of metal.

Will braced himself for the impact that would surely end his life, but it never came. Instead, there was an impossibly fast whoosh of motion to his left, and the next thing he knew, Tobias was there, the blade of the dagger clasped in his hand.

Tobias was under Westing as fast as lightning; he whacked out with both fists at once, catching him a glancing blow in the jaw. Then he was over him, under him, all around him at once. Impossibly fast. That was the only way to describe it.

Will finally allowed himself to breath again. He wasn't dead. He shakily picked himself up out of the grass, bleeding slightly but immensely tired, watching Tobias and Westing engaged in mortal combat. 

He had never seen Tobias fight before; the spectacle reminded him somewhat of the daemon fight moments before, and Will compared his own fighting abilities to Tobias's. Will was strong, Will was powerful, but Tobias was _fast_. Nothing made up for that kind of agility. Everything about that boy, Will decided, was _quick_. Flick-flick-flick, he was everywhere at once, lightning-speed, changing position as fast as child's daemon could change form. But Westing was fast, too--almost too fast. Will couldn't do anything in this fight. Tobias had just saved his life; now it was up to him.

But finally power won, and Tobias found his achingly tired body pinned beneath Westing's, the rifle barrel at his neck. Will stood stock-still, too tired to do anything, his mind a whirl. Tobias was breathing heavily, and Will was just barely sane enough to wonder why Tobias didn't use any of his Forthsight powers to fight Westing. Back into Will's mind, from Tobias, the answer came almost immediately. _I've been saving up, _he said mysteriously.

Will only had a moment to wonder. Then everything disappeared.

---

Sidney Dune's inhuman, soulless figure paced menacingly back and forth in the dim light of his chamber, casting a ghoulish, flickering shadow on the dank, mossy stone walls. He had been waiting for far too long. Where was that snake of a Sniper? Dune was certain that he'd be executed if he didn't bring back his requested prize. Thinking of this, Dune let his wicked, serrated claws extend themselves, clutching at nothing. The blissful feeling of living flesh at the end of those wicked claws hadn't been felt in far too long, he decided. He needed _meat._.

But even more so, he needed the Chosen One.

At that moment, a frontal door banged open and slow footsteps could be heard. Dune listened intently, deciphering exactly who and what was coming to see him. It was Westing, he decided, from the slight slithering sound accompanied by step, but since the pace was uncharacteristically slow, the Tyrant reckoned that he was very tired. Something strange had happened on the hills this evening. The other Snipers had not even returned yet, and Breyman, Dune decided, was long lost.

At last the visitor reached the Tyrant's chamber door and knocked once, slowly. "Come in!" Dune hissed, and the door creaked open. It was Westing, all right, but he had another with him, and from the looks of it, it was exactly what he had been asked to retrieve.

In one swift, fluid motion, Sidney Dune was at the doorway, breathing into the Sniper's face, sending chills up and down his spine like nothing else could. Westing dared not even glance into those dancing pools of obsidian mercury; he merely handed the unconscious boy over to the Tyrant and stood to attention, awaiting orders. Dune took the boy and deposited him on the main table in his chamber. He then smiled hideously and extended his claws in his ecstasy. "Gooood Wessssting," he exhaled in a terribly insidious hiss. "Tell me what happened."

Westing dared not lie to the Tyrant. He knew that that would be a terrible, terrible mistake, regardless if Dune had any sure way of distinguishing lies from truth. "Sire, there were two of them, another boy like this one, but I'm pretty sure that he had no Gift of the Mind. He attacked me, and I tried to kill him, but he was a powerful fighter and then when I thought I had him beat, this one, the Number Thirteen, attacked me as well. I was outnumbered and overpowered, and then somehow, totally beyond me, the none-Gifted one just disappeared out of thin air. For a moment I thought that he had done it himself, but then this one, the Number Thirteen, fell unconscious immediately, so I'm pretty sure it was he that caused it."

Dune nodded and blinked, giving a disturbing smile. "Certainly, Wessssting. And what of Breyman?"

Westing stood a little taller. "Breyman is dead, sire. I don't know how it happened but I saw his daemon-less body with my own eyes. He is definitely dead, sire." Dune nodded slowly once more. "Well, that'ssss an unfortunate lossss, though not an irreplasssssible one. You will be promoted to hisss posssition, Wesssting. Do well in hisss plasssse." Westing, doing his best to ignore the chills that that insidious hissing gave him, nodded and stood to attention smartly, his small frame practically swelling with pride. "I will not let you down, sire."

Dune smiled another hideous, frightening smile. A single long, steely, serrated claw was brought up to hover in the air directly below Westing's chin. "You will mossst sssertainly not fail me, Ssssniper." He said, his tongue flicking out, not at all unlike that of a great lizard. His mysterious, mercurious eyes narrowed slightly, and the fire and ice within them swirled together into a dizzying pool of extremities. The gleaming claw touched Westing's chin. "Becaussse if you do..." he hissed again, bringing his distorted, inhuman face even closer to Westing's now-quaking body. "You will mossst ssssertainly regret ever being recruited into my army." With a quick, fluid motion, Dune struck upward and at an angle, drawing a thin line of blood from Westing's chin down to his collarbone. He gasped in pain and began shaking terribly as Dune finished. "Or ever being born, for that matter."

He nodded in dismissal and Westing fled, highly terrified, off to change his almost certainly soiled pants.

Dune watched him flee, hissing in laughter. "What a ssssnake," he murmured, stroking the claws of his right hand. "'Tisss a sssshame, really, about Breyman. He wasss a good sssoldier. This Wesssting, I don't know if I can trussst him. He's such a reptile, and there'ssss only room for one reptile in my army." He laughed again, hideously, and took the senseless Tobias off to his brand-new chamber. He had a little contraption that he was just dying to test out.

---

When Tobias finally came to, he was at first quite unsure where he was. It certainly didn't look like Dunestone, although he was certain it could be nowhere else--a white, sterile-looking, small, clean room. Metallic and new. Not as dark as he was used to Dunestone being, though still quite dim in its own right. But not as old, not as dank. 

It couldn't be a good thing.

Aerotsierma stirred at his neck and Tobias stood, rubbing his throbbing temple. His bandage was beginning to come undone, and flecks of blood dotted the otherwise immaculate gleaming metal floor. Tobias, actually, didn't care at all where he was. He had saved Will's life, and now that he was safe, he knew that it was hopeless for himself. He would die in this place. He felt an incredible surge of self-hatred well inside him. Whether or not it was his first taste of true insanity, he didn't care. Nothing mattered now. The only thing he cared about now was that he didn't want Dune or his men to have the pleasure of killing him or watching him die. If it had to be done, and he knew that it did, he would do it himself.

But he had to suffer. In his own fevered brain, it was the only way to gain repentance for what he believed were his own terrible, hideous sins. Tobias thought quickly. What was the one thing that he cared about the most, the one thing that he loved, the one thing that would hurt him the most if it were injured, maimed, tortured, destroyed?

He thought about his family. He thought about Iris. No. Not them. Too far away. Too material. Something deeper. Something far more painful. Something that would truly torture his soul.

His gaze inexorably fell on his own daemon.

A surge of pure hatred and insanity filled his soul. This was the last straw. Nothing more could be done. He'd never get out of here alive--he was far, far too weak to even use his Forthsight to mind-search, never mind cutting a hole through the worlds to escape.

Slowly but surely, he moved foreword to Aerotsierma. She sensed the perverse, disturbed, crazy look in his eyes even before he reached down to touch her. But he was her human, and she didn't think to back away. She was his soul, and he would never hurt her. Never.

Tobias moved like a robot as he reached down and picked the fox up by the scruff of her neck. Slowly but surely the terrible wrongness of the situation dawned on the daemon, but she had no idea how to express it in words. It simply didn't come natural. It simply wasn't _right._.

Tobias remembered, dimly, what Dune had done to his daemon long ago. He remembered how much it hurt. That is what he wanted now. That perverse, horrid pain. Pain and wrongness. 

Everything was wrong now. Everything was pain.

With one swift, fluid motion, he hoisted the fox daemon from the ground and slammed her against the wall as hard as he could. In his fevered, buzzing mind, he could feel the pain of her bones crunching, could feel the material pain of her nerves grinding against metal. But to him, that didn't hurt at all. It was the mental pain, the emotional pain, that he savored so. This is what he felt he deserved. He had reached into his own soul, torn it out, and thrown it against a metal wall.

He picked the daemon off the floor and did it again. Aerotsierma did not fight back. Whatever it was that he was doing, whatever it was that had driven him to cause such pain as this, it was all her fault, and she deserved it. She had no way to even fathom what was going on. It was wrong on every level, every level possible, but that is what she told herself. _It hurt because I deserved it._.

Tobias had no weapon to draw her blood, but eventually the hard metallic wall did the work for him. He tortured his own daemon, his own soul, until he no longer had the energy to stand, and he collapsed in a head upon the floor next to the bloody smear of his once beautiful daemon Aerotsierma.

He was wasted. He could only wait, now, to die.

He was fading, once more. Fading out of consciousness. Aero wasn't dead yet, but once more, for what seemed like the hundredth time, she was flickering. And at last his distorted brain was at peace. He had caused sufficient pain to himself. His penance had been done. His heart was torn from his chest; his soul lie ravaged and self-destructed on the floor next to his head. But as twisted as he felt inside, he knew that now, he could die in peace. He had suffered enough, finally, for the deaths of his family and friends.

He was just about to black out again when suddenly the lights switched on in that little, sterile, metallic room. The lights were fluorescent, and since they reflected off of every metallic surface in the room, they were magnified to an almost unbearable brightness. Tobias blinked in the light, wanting to fade out, wanting it to end, but part of his brain, the fiercely logical side that he had totally been ignoring the last few hours, told him to focus on the contraption that was now visible before him.

It was a wicked silver blade, gleaming mysteriously, positioned in a high-tech piece of equipment in a sort of guillotine. On either side there was a thick, sturdy metal cage. Tobias didn't know how he knew it, but something in his Forthsight-inclined brain told him, _this can't be for you. A machine to separate daemons would only work on children whose daemons were not yet in a fixed form._

But the answer came back to him, inexplicably, as it always did. _Not this one, _it told him._  This one is special. This one can take the power generated from any human/daemon bond. It would work on children and adults alike._

Tobias didn't care. He was dead anyway.


	16. Reunion

  
_(Author's note: Seriously, does **anyone** even remember this story? I know it's been a long time, but I didn't die or anything. I was just without a computer for several months. I have one again now, though -- a Mac -- so everyone can expect me to be getting out a chapter at least every few weeks or so. Don't lose faith! =( I seem to have lost a great deal of my writing ability in that time, though, so if this chapter is suckier than usual, well, poo on you. =D  
  
So anyway, I suppose we should recap, seeing as everyone's most likely forgotten everything. Even I had. =) So, where'd we leave our characters? Will had just killed Breyman and then had attempted to save Tobias from the next-in-command Sniper, Westing, but the two were too weak to fight and Tobias had gotten captured, right before using his psychic power to blast Will literally out of harm's way and into another world. Then, as everyone might actually remember, Tobias was carried away into a new chamber where he almost beat his dear Aerotsierma to death as a very wry form of self-mutilation, atonement for what he believed to be heinous sins on his part. **That's** when some of my dear readers started getting slightly freaked out and concerned for the author's sanity. =D Anyway! Then Tobias had been confronted with a new machine that looked suspiciously similar to the old daemon-cutting thing from TGC. So ... The others? Iris and Mary Malone had just used the super-spiffy new machine to blast a hole into Lyra's world, where they were determined to find her and bring her back to help fight Dune. And Lyra? Lyra was alone and depressed, hopping around the school roofs at night to bring back old memories. ... There, that should be all. Happy reading then, folks! Sorry that it's not as long as some of the others are.)_  
  
**

CHAPTER SIXTEEN--Reunion

**   
  
Will felt himself being hurtled through a million worlds in the blink of a moment, and yet it seemed like an eternity at the same instant. It was bizarre and totally unlike anything Will had ever encountered, and he was confused beyond words. From what had just happened, from what was happening now, from what was about to happen, though he had no idea of it.  
  
Thoughts raced through his mind as he felt his brain, body and soul being tugged inexorably through a blank whiteness that exploded in a million colors, Kirjava silent at his side. What had happened to Tobias? Will knew that he must've given his last ounce of strength into saving his life by transporting him into another world like this. Despair filled his suddenly traversing soul. There was truly no way Tobias could still be alive, even after all this. How many times in the space of what seemed to be a few moments had the two newfound friends saved one another's life? It had to end somewhere. And now, seemingly, it had.  
  
And to where was Will going now? He struggled to comprehend what was happening to his body and to his senses, but he could make neither heads nor tails of it. He figured that he must be going back to his own world ... and yet inexplicably, he hoped that he was not. He had failed, once more. Just as he had failed to keep his father alive, all those years ago; just as he had failed to keep Lyra with him ...  
  
WUMPH.  
  
"Ow. Jeez."  
  
Quite suddenly Will fell out of a dark night sky as his senses returned with startling clarity. Cold, bright stars flashed before his eyes and a chilly wind hit his skin before he landed on a hard, slightly slanted surface, knocking the wind out of him entirely. Kirjava landed lightly on her four delicate paws, but they had fallen from at least ten feet; she tumbled.  
  
"Kirjava? Are you alri-- Ah! I'm slipping!"  
  
The fall had caused gravity to get the better of the shaken pair; Will suddenly found himself to be rolling and sliding down the incline. His handles grappled for purchase upon the rough, grainy surface, but the wind had been knocked out of him and he was sliding too quickly.   
"What the hell? Kir! Where are you?!"  
  
Kirjava sprung away as a sudden to the incline reared up like a dark chasm. "I'm right here, Will! Be careful! There's a drop-off! I'm not strong enough to keep you from falling, I don't know what to do!"   
  
"I can't see anything; it's too dark. I'm sliding. Damnit!"   
  
He scrabbled desperately in the darkness as, with a shock of horror, he felt his feet slide off the edge and into the unknown below. Yelling an obscenity, he clutched the rough edge of the plane he was on; his chest and head slid off with such force that the snapback effect left him dazed for a moment. In the almost total darkness he could barely see his fingertips, raw and bloody, holding precariously onto what appeared to be the concrete edge to the platform.   
  
Kirjava appeared a split-second later, her luminous green eyes the only visible objects to Will. "Oh! Will! Can you climb up?"   
  
He attempted to scramble and heave himself up, but due to the inclination of the platform he was dangling from, he could not do so successfully. He strained his arms until he grunted from the pain and exertion of it.   
  
"No, Kir. I can't. Where are we? Do you know how far it is to the ground?"   
  
On delicate, sure-footed silk paws, the daemon peered over the edge. "We appear to be on some sort of very large building. I'd say that there are at least five or six stories, Will. And we're on the top."   
  
Will felt a cold thrill of fear, harsh contrast to the adrenaline he had been feeling a moment before. His heart beat hard against his ribcage; his muscles twitched in utter exhaustion. He was immensely tired from the ordeal he had just endured in Tobias's world, which had been, after all, just a few brief moment ago. He was still covered in slightly drying blood, not much of it his own. He entire upper body ached from the fall from the sky onto the roof of the building, and his hands and arms were raw and bloody from his desperate and useless scramble. "Kir," he said, his breath labored and heavy, "I'll not make it."   
  
The cat daemon perched up on the very edge, desperately licking her human's bloody arms. "No, Will, you can't. I know you can pull yourself up. Try, Will, try!"   
  
Will closed his eyes, dangling forty feet above the ground, his fingers bloody and split as they strained. "I did. I ... can't. So tired. Just want to go to sleep ..."   
  
And Kirjava knew it was true; he was spent, he had no strength left. Tobias's brilliant save of his life ... and not for the first time ... would have been in vain. But it was not the job of the daemon to be rational in such an irrational chain of situations, and so she urged him still.   
  
"There might be someone who can help you! There must be people in this building. There has to be someone ... we are back in our own world, right? This looks enough like London to me. Feels like it, too. I can run for help ... someone will ..." She trailed off, her voice reaching a note of almost spastic desperation there at the end. Will said what she knew all along, but had been trying to promote hope anyway.   
  
"You can't, Kir. We can only part a few feet, and there's obviously no one within ... a few ... feet ..."   
  
Kirjava lunged forward, grabbing Will's collar with her teeth and pulling with all her might. But it was, of course, merely an act of desperation; she weighed perhaps a tenth of what her human did. "Will, no," she pleaded. "You can't. You can't."   
  
Will could not hold on any longer. "Kir," he said, a tiny tremble in his usually strong and steady voice. "I'm -- I'm going to let go now--"   
  
Kirjava placed her paws on his head and closed her luminous eyes, prepared to fall with him. She could feel his weakness and knew that it was true.   
  
"Hello? Is someone there?"   
  
A new voice cut through the enveloping darkness. Kirjava's head shot up and Will cried out, his voice hoarse from pain and exertion.   
  
"Yes! Help me, please! I can't hold on much longer!"   
  
Against the pale starlight, he could just barely make out the figure of another human emerging from the shadows of the ledges and turrets. With almost catlike sure-footedness it made its way down the sharp incline of the shingled roof as quickly as it dared. "Don't worry, I'm going to help you. Just hold on."   
  
Suddenly, like a miracle, Will felt a cool, strong touch to his ravaged hands. Kirjava stayed back, wary of this human's d¾mon, which seemed to stay in the shadows.   
  
With a great deal of pulling and straining, Will's unlikely savior heaved him, gasping, up and over onto the roof. He was hurled up with such force that he knocked into his shadowy rescuer, and the two of them tumbled backwards together. The rescuer righted itself quickly and pulled Will to his feet. Clouds had rolled across most of the stars, and there were no streetlights anywhere that Will could see, so the two were basically in almost total darkness. Will coughed, so tired that he could hardly think; his voice was hoarse with fatigue. "Thank you so much; you saved my life. I wish I could find some way to repay you, but I've got nothing of value with me at the moment. I'm sorry, I --"   
  
The sharply distinctive voice cut the darkness once more. "You sound hurt, and I'm certain I felt blood on you when I heaved you up. Be aware that I could get in a lot of trouble for this, but you better come inside and we'll see if we can get you fixed up a bit. What the hell are you doing out on the school roof in the middle of the night, anyway? You a burglar or something?" Will didn't want to have to explain himself, especially to a total stranger, but he heard his rescuer draw a sharp intake of breath and say, "You haven't come for the--"  
  
"I'm not here for anything. I'm not even supposed to be here. Trust me, it's a really long story. I assure you, you don't want to hear it."   
  
Even in the deep darkness Will could feel the eyes of his rescuer penetrating the inky blackness where he stood. Will was not the type of person to trust strangers, but he had the immediate feeling that this nameless person could be trusted. They had, after all, saved his life. Maybe it's easy for anyone to trust someone who had just saved their life.   
  
Will could hear his rescuer stepping lightly across the roof, although he could not see the figure. Quite suddenly he felt the presence of a person mere inches away. It made him extremely uncomfortable and vulnerable, yet at the same time, there was something terribly lulling and provocative about this person. His heart beat in shock and he flinched noticeably as he felt the cool, smooth touch of a slender hand upon his cheek.  
  
"The way you said 'Trust me' just then ..." The nameless, faceless rescuer trailed off, voice heavy with nostalgia. When it spoke again, its voice was lowered almost to a whisper. "A long time ago, someone said those very words to me, just as you had. Someone I lost long ago." Will had no time or energy to bring himself to deeply involve himself in his savior's personal issues, nor did he want to surface the thoughts of someone he lost long ago, too. "I'm sorry," he said noncommittingly.   
  
He could still feel his rescuer's eyes boring into the place he stood in the darkness, and it made him feel extremely strange and uncomfortable. He was so tired, though ... all he wanted was to lay down for a while. Just a little while. But at least being saved by this strange person who just so happened to be in the right place at the right time took his mind off the depressing issues that had been occurring. Everything going wrong, Tobias taken, Iris and Mary gone, no one to save the Chosen One ... nothing right.   
  
His head suddenly hurt terribly, and he swayed on his feet. "I need ... to rest. I'm terribly fatigued. Is there some way you can help me get to the ground?"  
  
The cool, soft hand fumbled in the dark for Will's own, and the rescuer began to lead him carefully up the incline of the roof and toward the side of the building that went further up from the roof. "We'll have to go through the window, but that's all right. Just be really quiet, okay? Don't make a sound, and you'll be fine."   
  
Finally they made their way to a large, stony window ledge, and the rescuer quietly pulled Will forward by his hand. "You first," it whispered, "You'll have to--" it stopped. The person was grappling with Will's famously injured hand.  
  
"Your hand," it said breathlessly. "You're missing two fingers. Did that happen in the fight you must've just been in?"   
  
Will pulled his hand away, suddenly very uncomfortable. "No," he said guardedly, "It's a very old wound. Happened a long time ago."   
  
Kirjava leapt onto the windowsill beside Will, and both could feel one another's perplexity and curiosity. The rescuer leaned over Will's shoulder to pull open the window, and their faces were just centimeters apart even though it was far too dark for either of them to see.  
  
Will breathed in the clean, sweet smell of his rescuer's hair, and something strange formed in his throat. Confusing thoughts muddled his already rather grey brain, the scent stirring some tiny, insignificant memory from long ago. Without knowing what he was doing or why, Will found himself pressing his face into his rescuer's hair as it leaned over his shoulder.   
  
He expected his rescuer to draw away in shock, but it did not. "Yes," it murmured. "I do believe I'm dreaming. It always turns out like this. How many times have I dreamt of this? Of course it's impossible; of course there'd be no way. False hope is a truly painful thing ..."   
  
Will had no idea what his rescuer was talking about, and yet at the same time was hanging onto and understanding every word.   
  
"Of course, it can't be. What am I thinking? Pan, I do believe I'm going insane."  
  
Will's head whipped around. "Pan? Who's Pan?" He reached out blindly in the dark, his heart palpitating almost uncomfortably. His rescuer did not reply. Something strange came over Will and he sunk to his haunches, leaning his back against the stone wall of the building beneath the window. Kirjava, her shimmering coat dark in the blackness, curled into his arms and lap. He reached out, wondering what had happened to this aptly titled stranger, and his hand came in contact with incredibly soft, smooth fur. It was not Kirjava.   
  
He heard a gasp.   
  
And then a very pained voice. "And this is where I always awaken ..."   
  
Suddenly he felt like his heart would explode. For another touch had been made upon fur, this time by the stranger. Upon his own daemon.  
  
Will's insides shifted, and the touch that should have made him nauseous felt so familiar and so painfully, painfully wonderful that he gasped out in shear wonder at the feeling. And then, all at once, he knew.   
  
"Oh, Lyra. Lyra. Lyra."   
  
"Will. My Will. My love."   
  
Will's head was spinning; his heart was thumping like it never had before. He, truly, expected himself to awaken at any moment, to awaken from this impossible scenario that they had both dreamt of countless times but had never truly expected. And yet, here it was. It was happening.   
  
His arms enveloped her thin frame, hugging her tightly to him; he pressed his face into her sweet hair and smooth neck, breathing in her scent.   
  
"How-- you've got to tell me, how--"  
  
There were sobs of pure joy in her voice, joy and something less definable. Will felt tears squeeze from his own eyes, indeed, but of course did not let it show. "I'll explain everything. I promise."   
  
And then the heavens opened up and huge grey clouds rolled away, leaving the two blissfully reunited under a full, beautiful sky of stars. And there they lay, oblivious once more from the world that had so cruelly ripped them apart, two young creatures of fate finally at peace in one another's arms, together at last beneath the heavens from which all their problems had come.   
  


*

  
  
When Will awoke, sunlight was streaming through the open dormitory window. Warm blankets enveloped him, Kirjava curled upon his chest, and his wounds had been properly dressed earlier. For a moment upon waking, Will thought once more that he had been dreaming, but as the previous night's events came flooding back, he knew that even no dream could've possibly been half as beautiful. And as he looked over and saw Lyra's sleeping face inches away, Pan's golden form curled into the crook of her neck, he felt as if his heart would burst. He knew that there were no words in any language to describe what he was feeling.   
  
As he savored the utter, simple wonderfulness of the moment, his rationality began to alert him that he needed to be gone before Lyra's dorm-mates awoke. He knew something else, too. Tobias had sent him here for a reason. He needed Lyra's help in bringing down the undeniable evil that permeated Tobias's home world. Lyra had a gift that no one else possessed: she had the alethiometer. Tobias might be able to read minds, but only Lyra could grasp the future before it came.  
  
Before it destroyed everyone.  
  
Will knew that a terrible battle was to come. He knew that their side had to have every possible asset they could or they'd not have a chance. They'd probably still not have a chance.   
  
Tobias might even be already dead.   
  
Will hated himself for even thinking about thinking about it, but at that moment, all he wanted was to be here with Lyra for all eternity. To hell with everything else.   
  
But he had explained the entire situation to Lyra the best he could the night before, lying out on the roof beneath the stars. She had agreed with him: that awful evil had to be stopped somehow. She was slowly but surely learning how to use the alethiometer again. It would most definitely give their side a big advantage. They needed her.   
  
Lyra awoke, they rejoiced silently at their reunion once more, and ten minutes later were gone from the school grounds entirely. Not long after, they encountered Mary Malone and Iris. It could've been an incredible coincidence, but everyone suspected that it was no such thing at all.   
  
And with the revolutionary machine that Dr. Malone had created with Tobias's help, the three of them and their daemons were drawn back into Will and Mary's world. Much rejoicing and reunion took place, particularly between Mary and Lyra, and Will told Iris and the physicist what had happened with Breyman and Tobias in perfect detail, not leaving anything out, even the most disturbing things. He had, of course, no idea of what had gone on in Dune's chambers after Tobias's capture.  
  
And then, plans were to be made.  
  
Dr. Malone would enter the correct coordinates for Tobias and Iris's world, given by Tobias's equations, and she would create a new edgeless window into a new world. And they would, somehow, rescue Tobias and then bring down Sidney Dune and Dunestone itself.   
  
It wasn't going to be easy.  



	17. Cut

_(Author's Note: Um. Yeah. In this chapter, the author has more fun torturing the hell out of her main character. Oh, and ... it appears that I'm slowly but surely losing my fans. -sobsob- I guess that's what I get for leaving this story alone for so long. I'm sorry, all.)_  
  
**

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN--Cut

**  
  
Tobias drifted in and out of consciousness for the longest time, dimly aware of the buzzing hum of low conversation around him. The sickeningly white and bright image of the room he was in created instant pain when he attempted to open his eyes. There was, however, enough of his brain left intact for him to realize that much of his intense, excruciating pain, inside and out, had vanished entirely and was replaced by a very dull, numb feeling. The thoughts that had normally raced through his brain far more quickly than the average human now plodded along with absurd slowness. He felt like he was halfway attempting to emerge from a dark, grey pit of metaphorical sludge, but halfway to the surface he had decided that he no longer cared, and let himself sink. He was just about to decide that he truly didn't care, not in the least, when he remember what he had done to Aerotsierma.  
  
He reached out a trembling hand to her, and even though he knew it was impossible otherwise, felt a stab of relief that she was still alive. He wondered distantly if she'd ever forgive him; he felt like his heart had died.  
  
He realized quite suddenly that regardless of what garbage he told himself, or felt once in a while, he didn't want to die. He knew that there was no heaven, or if there was, there was no place for him there. Almost entirely certain that daemon and human alike were released as arbitrary energy upon death, he knew that he didn't want to part with Aero, even if what came after was oblivion, and he technically would never know.  
  
Slowly his thoughts uncrossed themselves and sped up to almost their regular vigor. He shakily lifted his head from the sterile white floor and looked around, blinking in the bright neon light. He could hear dim voices of conversation, but could not detect their source. He saw the great bladed machine, gleaming newly and unstained in the brightness, but did not dwell on it. His heart hurt him, and tears streamed down his face, although he could not feel it due to the anesthetic he had been given. His hand, shaking terribly, descended upon Aerotsierma's formerly beautiful rusty coat. Now, however, it was hard and sticky, coated with dried blood.  
  
Tobias dragged himself on the floor with bloody palms. Although he could feel almost no pain within his body, he could also not feel _anything,_ merely a terrible, all-consuming numbless. Nonetheless, he pulled the curled-up fox toward his chest, stroking her, his tears falling onto her fur. "Oh, Aerotsierma," he whispered, knowing that something within his mind was unbelievably wrong. What had caused him to do that? How? Human beings did not have fights with their daemons. They just _didn't._ Especially not like ... not like that. Never. Never.  
  
"Never. Never. I'm so sorry. Never ..."  
  
Slowly but surely, Aerotsierma's amber eyes flickered in the bright light and she raised her head. Wordlessly, her eyes and actions telling what a million words could not, she raised her head and nuzzled her human affectionately. She shed no tears; daemons do not cry. That was the human's job. So there, as Tobias sat in the middle of the previously white floor in a dried puddle of his own blood, he cried enough for the both of them.  
  
Eventually the numbness in his body dulled and Tobias felt life returning to him. He had been doctored up quite a bit, and apparently by extremely skilled doctors. He knew that he had been on the brink of death; ever since he had gotten shot in the head by Breyman he knew that the slightest thing, the tiniest hit in the right place, would kill him. _I'm so weak,_ he thought bitterly. _Weak enough to not be able to win this fight. Weak enough to almost beat my own daemon to death._  
  
Aerotsierma heard his thoughts, felt the terrifying, hideous, almost irrepressible wave of self-loathing that surfaced and translated almost instantly into anger and depression. She couldn't let that happen to him. If daemons could cry, she would've. She felt horrible -- what kind of daemon is so bad, so ill-suited to their human, that they cause the person whose soul they're supposed to be to attempt to beat them to death? Aerotsierma shuddered at the thought, startled at how much of Tobias's weakness were contained in her, as well. But she knew she couldn't let him have those feelings; she had to try harder.  
  
"Tobias. No, don't feel like that. It's okay."  
  
His daemon knew that it was her fault, and that it should be him forgiving her, but she also knew that it wasn't his way of thinking, that he was inclined to blame himself, so it was what he had wanted to hear. What he needed to hear. She bore no grudge against him at all, of course. How could she? It was her fault, and ...  
  
"Aero. No."  
  
Tobias took his daemon gently by the shoulders and stared into her hurt, tender, intelligent amber eyes. "It is not your fault. Listen to me, Aero. Something went wrong when I did that. Something up here ..." he gently tapped his head, a horribly troubled look on his face. "Something up here isn't as it should be. I realize that now. I refuse to believe that I'm entirely innocent for the actions I've committed in the past, but there can't possibly be anything I've done that would deserving of what I did to you. To us." His tears had dried, but his eyes reflected more pain than most humans would have to endure in ten lifetimes. "I'll never, ever do anything like that again. If I do, I'll kill myself. I swear." His voice choked. Aerotsierma flattered her ears and nuzzled him gently. He continued. "You have no idea how much I love you. I'm so, so sorry." He was whispering now. The pain in his voice was quite palpable. "Please forgive me."  
  
"But Tobias, I have nothing to forgive, it was my f--"  
  
"No! Don't do that. Say that again and I'll gouge through my own skin, and then only _I'll _feel that pain. No, Aero, no. You are as loyal and trusting as a daemon could be, and here I've gone and ... and broken that trust ... I ... it's worse than murder. What I did was worse than murder."  
  
"If it's what you want to hear, Tobias, then I forgive you," she whispered. Tobias stared at her. "You'll never trust me again, will you?" The fox opened her mouth to tell him that there's no way she could force herself to betray him, even if she wanted to, but he didn't let her reply. Instead he said, "And you're right. I ... I don't deserve you."  
  
Aero felt it again, the awful wave of self-hatred within him. But this time it was almost overwhelming, a sickening feeling that felt like the gouging of insides. She shrugged the hideous feeling away and stood firm. "Listen to me, Tobias. I know you don't really feel that way, because I am you, and I know what I feel. So whatever this is that we're going through, we have to snap out of it, and now. Look around you. We're in a bit of situation, here. I suggest that you put all that angsty, suicidal, self-pity crap away for the time being and let's figure out a way to escape this place."  
  
Tobias was utterly stunned; never before had his daemon spoken to him like that. But it had the desired effect, and he knew that she was right. She was always right. She knew him better than anyone; she knew him better than he knew himself. Before he could reply, Aero said, "And do not even think about making yourself suffer for hurting me. Tobias, you've suffered a billions times more than what you should have already."  
  
_Alright. Tobias, snap out of this. Now._  
  
Shakily, with heaving breaths, he stood to his feet and hugged his daemon close. "Aerotsierma?" he said quietly, closing his eyes against her fur. "Promise me something." The fox turned her head and licked his nose.  
  
"Anything."  
  
"Never leave me. Ever. Please. I don't know what I could do without you. When I seem to be going over the edge like that, you can't let me. Do whatever you have to, but don't let me lose myself again. Please. And don't leave me. Don't leave me."  
  
"I couldn't, Tobias. There's no way that I could by my own volition. You even worked out the math of it, once, remember? How the greatest possible will of a daemon to do such a thing would go far, far beyond the pain capacity that either of them could feel. They'd die before they'd let it hap--"  
  
"Just promise me."  
  
"...Okay, Tobias. I promise."  
  
Suddenly the loud noise of a metal door swinging open cut through the silence. Three men in white lab coats walked briskly into the room. One had a clipboard, and all of them looked inordinately nervous. Even their three various small-dog daemons seemed anxious.  
  
Eventually one of them came over to the boy. The man gave him the strangest look. What was it? Not anger, surely. Pity, maybe? How strange. Tobias had no time to react, however, for at that instant the two other lab-coated men leapt forward, grabbing him roughly and pushing him down. Swift and wordless, the third whipped a sort of collar from a coat pocket and straddled his back as his two partners held Tobias's arms. The third fixed the band around his head tightly, locking it with some sort of complex built-in computer code panel. From the band he withdrew a sort of thin, wicked-looking hook; this he drove into the back of Tobias's head with a single swift, fluid motion.  
  
"Aaaaarrrrrggghhhnnnnnhh!"  
  
Tobias roared in pain and then lie slightly more still. The three scientists backed away from the face-down boy, murmuring to one another. He got shakily to his feet, collecting his daemon and staring angrily at his tormentors. Before he could asked, the first one explained.  
  
"You have been fitted with a state-of-the-art designed mechanism that has only been developed in this facility within the last few months. That is made out of solid seraphium, completely impenetrable by absolutely anything other than the code which must be entered in that panel in order to unlock the device."  
  
Immediately, as he was slightly recovered, Tobias made his move. He opened his mind and delved it into the first scientists', prepared to find the code within seconds for later usage.  
  
To his surprise and horror, he found nothing there. It wasn't emptiness, it was more like ... a wall. A solid black veil, hiding him entirely and effectively from anything that lie beyond. A split-second later, such a powerful shock shot through his body that he fell to his knees as his body spasmed with electricity. The excruciating pain was over in a second, though, and he stood again, shaking much more now, the faint smell of burning hair and flesh sizzling in the sterile air.  
  
"That is the brilliance of it, you see. Your Powers of the Mind, absolutely all of them, are blocked by this device. And every time you try, you get shocked. And each time is twice as powerful as the last. It's exponential, you see." While there could have been triumph and haughty sneering in the scientist's eyes, Tobias still found nothing but that bizarre, inexplicable look of pity.  
  


*

  
Tobias was forced into being cleaned, but he was glad of the shower, even if he was being scrutinized at all times by no less than three guards. He made sure to scrub every fleck of blood from his body, loathing the feeling that it gave him to be on his flesh. And his hands ... the hands that he had tortured his daemon with ... he scrubbed until they bled themselves, repeating the cycle over again entirely.  
  
His daemon was cleaned, as well, until her coat was lustrous and soft again, and her wounds were healed when Tobias's were. Their technology was so effective at healing wounds that Tobias could almost feel nothing of the gunshot wound he had been previously given.  
  
At last he and his daemon were led up to the white room again. The blood on the floor had been cleaned up entirely ... or was this another identical room? Tobias couldn't think. He couldn't remember tracking his way back to the same exact location. But then he saw the guillotine machine, and he knew. His heart plummeted. Everything that he had done earlier, reconciliation with Aerotsierma, self-agreement that he did not want to die -- all would be undone. Obsolete.  
  
And he was powerless to stop it. Six heavily-armed guards blocked the cell doorway, and he could not possibly hope to even escape, for he had no power of his brilliant mind. And although death would be arguably better than what he knew he was about to be subjected to, he knew that they would not kill him. They'd force him into it, kicking and screaming all the way. Quickly and silently, Aero and Tobias passed these feelings between them, and she agreed with her human: death was better. Even though there was nothing they could do ...  
  
Wait. No. There was one thing.  
  
As he was being led to the seraphium cage that was connected to one side of the machine, he tried to use his mental powers, fully aware of what would happen. A terrible shock immediately coursed through his body, hideous, so strong that it burnt his flesh and almost caused him to void his bladder. But he ignored the pain and did it again. Again. Again.  
  
"Stop it!" It was one of the scientists. "It won't kill you. It's been programmed to cause hideous pain until it causes irreversible brain-damage, but it cannot kill. It will not kill. So stop doing that." No, Tobias hadn't just been imagining it. There really was pity in his eyes. In his voice. He didn't like what he had been sent there to do that day. He didn't like it one bit.  
  
But he, just like Tobias, was powerless.  
  
Tobias decided to make a run for it anyway, full aware that it was entirely hopeless; Tobias, however, was not the type of person to go down without a fight. He suddenly broke from the arms of the scientists and sprinted toward the door; to his immense surprise and suspicion, no one came after him. However, he noticed that Aerotsierma was not with him far before he reached the padlocked steel door, and felt a painful tug as he realized she wasn't coming. And suddenly he felt that wicked, sick feeling of another's hands being on his own daemon; he choked in loathing and stopped in his tracks. Turning around slowly, he saw that one of the scientists had thrust his dear, precious Aero into one of the seraphium cages and sealed it. Her pain-riddled face stared at him through the clear metal.  
  
Seraphium was a recently discovered element, a powerful metal that was many times the strength of diamond; nothing could break it. It had the amazing quality of actually being very clear, almost as much so as glass. Tobias knew that it was a very expensive substance, and figured that Dune must've stolen a great deal of what he had.  
  
Tobias stared dumbly at the other cage that was connected by quite a few wires to the cage which held Aerotsierma. It was, of course, empty. The three scientists stared nervously at Tobias, unwilling to do what they were about to have to do. The guards at the door also looked at one another, tensing up, prepared to get involved if they must. Tobias was caught in between the two groups of Dune's men, until he finally noticed one of the scientists giving a small nod to the men behind him.  
  
And all at once, he went down. Two powerful men with large dog daemons slammed into him heavily, grabbing him by the arms and thrusting him toward the cage. He screamed and raged, thrashing wildly, calling out his daemon's name, but to no avail. He couldn't do anything with the barrier on his mind, and soon found himself thrust into the previously empty box-like cage. He fell to the floor, body heaving with unshed tears. "No ..." he muttered. "Aero ... please ..." But Aerotsierma could do nothing, either. The two stared at each other other through two solid walls of an indestructible metal, only a meter or so apart and yet infinitely so.  
  
But the scientists were waiting for something; Tobias, even as he was preparing himself for the dismemberment of his soul, noticed this. A moment later, the door to the white room was flung open and two guards came in, carrying another seraphium cage on a wheeled platform, as it would be far too heavy to carry themselves.  
  
While Tobias was trying to figure out the purpose of this, the guards set the cage to the floor, between and behind Tobias and Aero and close to the great blade.The guards then nodded and quickly left the room. Even they did not want to be around when this happened.  
  
One of the scientists then proceeded to hook up the various wires that dangled from the third cage to the bladed machine. Tobias noticed that somehow these wires were different. He felt a much-recognized stab of fear and loathing, but he couldn't figure this one out. What _was_ going on here?!  
  
They waited nervously, guards, scientists and subjects alike, until finally Tobias's nagging question was answered.  
  
The door flung open again and this time a nightmare ambled through. A dark, soulless, twisted being that defied all sense of human reasoning, a cloak covering his head and shoulders, even now unwilling to let others see his face. Only his eyes peered through, as liquid and mercurial as obsidian. Darkness seemed to emanate from it, dulling the disturbingly white room with an evil shadow.  
  
It was, of course, Sidney Dune.  
  
Triumph dancing in his mercurial eyes, the Tyrant strode to the cage which Tobias was contained within. "Well, my boy, we meet again. And there for a while I thought you were gone for good. But you alwaysss come back, don't you? Ssssomehow."  
  
Tobias tried desperately to control himself, for this creature arose more hate and loathing than anything possibly could. He knew that he was trapped in this box, a barrier on his mind, a complicated computer panel coded to keep the cage shut, far beyond his grasp. There was nothing he could do. Anger would lend him no strength this time.  
  
"Before your world isss torn apart, I want to tell you a little ssstory."  
  
Silence, and Tobias waited.  
  
"You've alwaysss wondered how I came to be the way I am, haven't you?" Again he paused, and again Tobias gave him nothing. "Well, let me tell you. I sssuposssse you have the right to know.  
  
"Long ago, I was an entirely normal human being. No different from the average idiot on the street, with a lovely, gentle, sweet daemon of my own. I was no older than you at the time, boy. During those days, my society and yours were entirely set apart, and between us there was no hatred, no loathing, although perhaps a little bit of jealously. But nothing that would drive either side to violence. For the most part, anyway."  
  
He stared at Tobias, daring him to respond. He didn't.  
  
"One day I became curious of the people with the power of the mind, so I went to observe some of them. I was a very intelligent young human, with much dangerous curiosity. There was a small group of children there, with powers such as yours, playing around like the idiots they were. They were practicing with their powers, if I recall correctly. Malicious, stupid beings that they were. One of them had a very powerful gift, something along the lines of the ability to transform matter directly into energy, with no explosion. Just a single, quiet transformation. It defies my knowledge of physics, to tell you the truth.  
  
"Anyway, here I was, observing this group of humans, when suddenly they spotted me. They were cruel and heartless, even for children, and they decided to torture me, knowing I was from the society 'below' them, not worthy of their presence. So the one with the power of matter-energy transformation tortured my dear daemon until she was nothing but floating particles of energy. Tortured her and I together until I was screaming in human pain as my daemon was torn away by those cruel and heartless little shits, the--"  
  
"Shut up! That isn't true!" Tobias's angry shout tore through the Tyrant's rant. Dune paused and stared at him, hatred and loathing pooling in his mysterious eyes, but he said nothing. Tobias went on.  
  
"I heard about that; it happened a long time ago. There was a boy that had been harassing some kids with the power of the mind, and it was _he _who had been torturing them! They were too young to have even discovered their individual gifts yet! The _normal _kid tortured one of them to death with naught but his own hands, and finally the kid just exploded! Desperation made his gift arise, and the bully's daemon just happened to be in the way. It was an _accident._ The kid was saving his own life!"  
  
"Silence! I will not be talked back to by such utter _scum _as you!"  
  
Tobias stared at the Tyrant through the seraphium barrier. "You mean to tell me that that was you? But they told us in school about this incident, and we learned that you died. That without your daemon, with it dead, you couldn't be alive, and so you died. And even so, the child that had 'killed' your daemon was threatened with a very hefty sentence, he--"  
  
"He was _your_ father."  
  
Tobias stared at him in shock. Surely he must be kidding! "That can't be true. My father did not have that gift. He had the gift of the ability to move objects with his mind. You're _lying!_"  
  
Dune leaned down and stared at Tobias directly through the clear metal. "You don't actually think that your father would go through life with that gift, do you? He killed another's daemon with it. That's about the worst crime a human being can commit. Imagine having that on his conscience!"  
  
Tobias just stared at him, refusing to believe. But now, with this knowledge, things were beginning to fall into place just a little bit more. Things were beginning to make a bit of sense.  
  
"There is a very complicated process that a Gifted human can go through to change his gift," Dune continued. "It is almost impossible to do unless there is a huge amount of incentive. And trust me, your father had a _huge_ amount of incentive. And so he was able to do it. After that first time, he never used his original gift again.  
  
"After this happened, after my daemon was destroyed, I could hardly go on, but I wasn't dead, somehow. I wasn't consumed with that complete and utter apathy that separated humans will experience. But still, I was too weak and listless to live a decent life. I had been born a very rich human, and so was able to collect a few very loyal minions that would follow me for my intellect and my wealth. A few of them were skilled underground scientists, and they were paid to put me through an experiment that changed me altogether. They gave me terrific strength of body, mind and soul alike, but in the process it changed me into a hideous, disgusting beast. That's what I am today, you see. No one here has ever looked upon my true face, and none ever will.  
  
"Even after this, after I was filled with this incredible, all-consuming strength, there was something missing. Several somethings, actually. First and foremost was my need for revenge. So I grew in power and wealth, none daring to oppose me after they witnessed my might, until I had enough to build this fortress and round up all of your kind. At first I figured I'd merely torture your father, but that was too easy, you see. I needed more than that.  
  
"Second was the hole created by the lack of my daemon. My scientists told me that if one of your people submitted and gave up their power to me, the energy created by that Gift could be translated into a sort of internal daemon that would ease that terrible pain inside. It wouldn't be quite the same as having a real, material daemon, but it would be enough so that my mind and soul wouldn't scream in agony at the infernal emptiness I experienced every day of my life.  
  
"But I came to realize that none of your people would ever give that power up, regardless of how much I threatened and tortured. So I picked your people off, one by one. And then I realized that even torturing and destroying your father would not be enough revenge. I wanted to cause the most pain to something else, the thing he held most dear to him. Even in the Land of the Dead now, he is sensing the horrible pain that I am causing to the most precious thing to him, more precious, perhaps than even his own daemon. For that is often how it works with parents and children, you see -- the one true form of unconditional love. Even beyond death."  
  
Dune stared at Tobias harder, triumph and insanity dancing in those horrible eyes. "Your father loved you, Tobias."  
  
Tobias shuddered in hatred, but he did nothing. He said nothing. Dune was not yet finished with his tale. "So of course I had to torture his son. Only then would I feel peace."  
  
Tobias could contain himself no longer. "What?! So you're telling me that you had to destroy an entire race of people, had to commit genocide, just so _you_ could feel at peace? And what's more is that what happened to you to make you crave revenge was an _accident!_ You're a fool! I'll kill you, you fucking son of a bitch! I'll-- aaarrgghhnn!" In his apex of anger, Tobias had unintentionally attempted to strike out at Dune with his mind. The result was a literally mind-blowing electrical shock.  
  
"Stop being foolish, boy. Anyway, as I was saying, my revenge has almost been satisfied, but my need for a daemon has not. Until my scientists came up with the little experiment that we'll be undergoing today." He grinned maniacally at Tobias, and then that was that. The conversation was over.  
  
Dune strode toward the third, empty cage and stepped inside. One of the scientists scurried quickly forward to shut the door and enter the code into the computer panel on the seraphium cage.  
  
And all at once, Tobias knew what was going to happen. Tears beaded his eyes once more, and he struck the metal as hard as he could with his fist in desperation. Of course it did nothing. Then he tried to choke himself with his own hands, tried to kill himself then and there, but electricity coursed through his body as one of the scientists hit a control that would keep the boy from killing himself. He needed to be alive for this.  
  
And then it happened. Insane energy permeated the air, and the wires connecting the three cages snapped and crackled as if they were alive. And the great blade, made of the same substance that the Subtle Knife was made from, groaned and began to descend.  
  
Tobias was shaking with the crackling energy that surged through him. Aerotsierma was howling in very canine-like torment, knowing that she was about to be torn from her human forever.  
  
In a last-ditch attempt to save the life of himself and his daemon, Tobias ignored the excruciating pain of the violent surges of electricity and sent out wave after wave of brainpower at the blade, willing it, urging it to stop. His head felt like it was about to explode as the energy coursed through him, tearing his brain and flesh apart.  
  
The blade drew lower, gathering speed as it fell. And suddenly Tobias felt it -- that evil wrench unlike anything he had ever felt as the very Dust that held him to his daemon was torn away, layer by layer; he could feel his _very daemon being torn away from his soul._  
  
But energy could not be created or destroyed. It could only be transferred.  
  
The scientists' faces flickered with incredulity and undeniable horror in the electrical light as the energy was slowly but surely pulled away from Tobias and swirled inexorably through the wires to the cage of the waiting Sidney Dune. It was horrible. It was more wrong, even, than Tobias beating his own daemon almost to death. It was beyond wrong. Totally and completely beyond it.  
  
At the top of the metallic guillotine was a digital percentage on an LCD display; it was the percentage of the bond of Tobias's daemon that was still connected to him. The number had started, of course, at 100%, and the procedure would be completed when the number reached 0%. Right now, however, it was at 43%. Tobias was less than halfway connected to his own daemon.  
  
Suddenly, as the air was seemingly about to explode with pain and wrongness and crackling, blue and white energy, the seraphium collar that was strapped around Tobias's head began to splinter. He started screaming out his own daemon's name in a horrific pain beyond any comprehension, and finall, as the procedure was about to be completed, the collar snapped entirely and in a huge, pent-up explosion of metal energy, a white crackling ball of electricity tore from Tobias's mind and shattered the guillotine just as it was about to part the last remaining strands of Tobias's bond with Aerotsierma.  
  
The LCD display flickered once, and then stopped. At 4%.  
  
Dune stood up and howled in his seraphium cage in pure triumph. Even though it had not been completed, it was by far enough. Exactly 96% of Tobias's daemon now belonged to Sidney Dune.  
  
Tobias fell to the floor, utterly defeated, beyond even pain now. No living creature should have to endure half of what he had now gone through. He was far beyond consciousness now, though. And he would, perhaps, never return.  
  
Smoke sizzled into the air as the electricity was shut down and the scientists scurried forward to enter the code that would open Dune's door. It bleeped once and then the powerful creature, now almost infinitely more powerful, slammed the door open and leapt through. He strode immediately to Aerotsierma's cage door, ripped the code in, and flung the door open. The daemon, too, was unconscious, but as Dune picked her up, he felt the connection. It no longer felt quite so weird to touch another human's daemon.  
  
Dune howled an inhuman shriek of pure triumph to the world around, electricity still fizzling in the air. He had won. Nothing could stop him now. He could rule the world with the power now contained within him. For the first time in decades, he felt whole again.  
  
He whirled around to the guards, pointing at Tobias with a wicked, serrated claw. "Take that to the infirmary. Keep him alive, through IV if necessary. I want to talk to him when he awakes. No matter what you do, keep him alive. I don't want to find out what happens to this daemon if her original human was to die. Even if they're only connected by a few tiny strands of Dust!"  
  
The scientists bowed low and complied immediately, carrying Tobias's almost lifeless body away.  
  
Dune stroked Aerotsierma gently with a claw, compelling her to awake. Never had he felt so wondrous; nothing could stop him now! Nothing!  
  
He had a daemon.  
  
And Tobias had none.  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  
_(Author's Note: Hmm ... do you think I went too far that time? Don't worry -- it will all work out in the end. I promise. Don't forget to review. Or I'll cry. I **will!**) _


	18. Lucky

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN -- Lucky**

  
  
Mary, Lyra, Will and Iris arrived into Tobias and Iris's world around the area of the town of Quell. Iris was quite perplexed at this; she knew perfectly well that there was something wrong with the distances, and that they shouldn't have arrived in the area that they did. Mary went on to explain to them all that somehow, since the edges of the windows between the worlds were infinitely thin, that the coordinates were not precise and had the tendency to shift, even quite drastically. She admitted that even she did not understand the full reasoning for this, and stated vehemently that she'd have to discuss it with Tobias when they rescued him.  
  
_When_, not if.  
  
They had taken the necessary preparations the night before, packing light but highly sufficient rucksacks and provisions for at least several days. However, they did not have the one thing that was by far the most important: a plan.  
  
In fact, the entire expedition had been riddled with annoyances since the very beginning. As soon as they had stepped into the new world and Iris, who had a knack for direction and location, figured out where they were, they had realized that there was a huge problem. Dunestone was at least several days away, and they had no method of transportation.   
  
There was an immediate delay, and back in they went (the window had been made out in the countryside surrounding Quell; there'd be no chance of anyone coming across them), and Mary attempting to recalculate the coordinates so as to make the window large enough and in the appropriate location -- ground level -- to get a car through. She moved the entire contraption outside, making sure that the three children stayed ever vigilant for intruders, but to no avail. She couldn't figure out how to modify the thing so that it'd accept anything larger than a wheelbarrow, and they had already lost valuable time.   
  
Muttering under her breath, Mary set it up back inside again, opened it, and tromped through, looking around, thinking. Perhaps an hour's walk from Quell, she finally decided that they had already wasted too much time and that perhaps they could make some deals in the town.   
  
By midday, the four of them were nearly to the town, and immediately Mary asked Iris where to find the nearest place where they could obtain a vehicle of sorts.  
  
Iris shook her head. "I know Quell well; it is the town I fled to when I escaped Dunestone. It took me many months to arrive here; it's very far away. But trust me, it's really not that big of a town, and not many people even use vehicles here at all. And surely no hover-meg cars."  
  
Will, fingers intwined with those of Lyra, shot her a glance. "Hover-mag cars?"  
  
Iris nodded, distracted and thinking. "Yes, yes, hover-mag cars. The hover-mags are really the only method of transportation at all where I'm from, but my world is different from yours in many ways. For one, it's not a fraction as populated, and our technology is in incredibly concentrated areas. My hometown, for instance, is probably the biggest industrialized center in the world, but the nearest city with half of its power is more than a hundred miles away. The main city is so large that it's divided into several hundred seperate factions. The one Tobias and I are from is called Highpoint."  
  
Mary sighed in exasperation. "We can't have come all this way for nothing, now. We absolutely must find some way to travel. There's no possible way that we can walk to Dunestone in time, and I doubt that cycling all that way would be efficient as far as time goes, either." She glanced at her watch, face tinged with worry. "It might be too late already."  
  
Mary knew that Iris was the only one would could really help them in this situation, having been from this world, and her last statement had the desired effect. "Wait. There might be a way, okay? There must be a few people with vehicles, though I bet they're old and far outdated." She paused for a moment, thinking. "Quell has a few historical landmarks or something, and it occasionally has visitors of higher society. Maybe we can find someone and make a bargain."  
  
She looked around the three of them, frowning. "We've not a lot to bargain with, though."  
  
Lyra nodded. "We'll have to try. It's really our only hope."  
  
Daemons at their sides, the four of them ambled through the rather desolate small town, annoyed at the complications that were presenting themselves in such a dire situation. Iris grew suddenly paranoid, making extra sure that her hair still covered the number on her forehead. She almost had forgotten the fact that if she was spotted and identified, there would be no mercy. Trying her best to be brave, however, she said nothing of this to her companions, and took advantage of her Gift by making any passing strangers simply not glance at her. It wasn't quite the same thing as invisibility, but it was close enough.  
  
They presently reached the center of town, and sure enough, several vehicles were parked outside the building. But there as well, in all its new, sparkling, shining glory, was a hover-mag car, parked on its three collapsible prongs. Iris's eyes shone as she approached the vehicle, murmering to her daemon as she did so. "Byralon, I _know_ the people in this town. Mean-spirited people all, it seems. No one would let us borrow so much as a bicycle, and you and I both know it."  
  
The caracal nodded toward Iris's three companions. "But they don't. What must we do?"  
  
Iris turned to Mary, Will and Lyra. "Do any of you three have anything of value that could possibly be traded?" Lyra's hand immediately went to her rucksack, which was made rather heavy because of the precise, delicate instrument within. "All I have is thte alethiometer, and I cannot possibly trade that, even for a fast trip to Dunestone. It is the reason I'm here, after all. It's the reason you need my help, and I couldn't part with it."  
  
Iris nodded. "Alright then. It seems to me that the only thing we'd be able to do is to steal the hover-mag."  
  
Will gave her a funny look, not particularly liking having to resort to theft when a deal could perhaps be reached, but Lyra grinned, a hint of her old, not-quite-lost adventurous spirit. "Let's do it!"  
  
But Mary held Iris's shoulder as she attempted to move forward toward the advanced vehicle. "Wait. Why can't we at the very least request to use it, perhaps explain the direness of our situation?"  
  
Iris shook her head immediately. "No. That is quite impossible, I assure you. First thing, there's no way we could possibly explain the situation. The 'normal' people in this world, you see, follow Sidney Dune's way of thinking to an extent. Normally most of them would think what he's doing is totally wrong, but for one thing they don't know half of what he did, and for another thing, such huge rewards will surely be offered for the missing ones that no one could turn it own."   
  
Mary nodded, saying, "Yes. It's like the holocaust of World War II, isn't it? What Hitler was doing was horrible, but no German citizen knew half of what went on, and he appealed to them in such a way that they didn't want to."  
  
Iris nodded and continued. "Second thing, the three of you, having not been from this world, wouldn't be able to easily request anything from these people; they might suspect that you're from 'elsewhere' and get dangerously suspicious. These are suspicious times, I'd say."   
  
Will raised one eyebrow at her. "But _you're_ here, and you're from this world."  
  
She squirmed slightly. "This is the town in which I was first captured. There was an accident and my number was spotted, and I was aprehended and caged until reinforcements could come to secure me and take me away. But that's when Tobias showed up and we escaped. They'd have me on file now, though: my profile, my daemon, my appearance. It'd be far too risky. That's why I've been using my Gift of Invisibility up until now."  
  
Mary rubbed the space between her eyes, looking for all the world like an extremely tired, very pissed-off mother. "Iris, you need to tell us these things."  
  
She shook her head. "No, it's okay; the people in this town wouldn't let us borrow anything anyway. I imagine that whoever has a hover-mag in this town isn't _from_ this town, and therefore is as rich as all get out and probably has several more. He can spare one. If your conscience is bothering you that much, we can always return it when we're through." She accentuated this statement with a rolling of the eyes.  
  
Mary sighed, and then nodded. "Alright, then. Let's do it."  
  
Will had been analyzing the situation carefully, and now rightfully took charge. "Alright. Here's what we do. Mary, I'm certain that you're best with everything electronic, so you can find a way to disable the security on this thing and figure out how to work it, right? Iris can help you since she's been around these things before. Lyra and I can create a distraction if anyone comes by."  
  
Mary furrowed her brow in thought. "I'm not sure what help I'll be, actually. I do have a small tool kit with me, so I'll try to see what I can do. I'll definitely need your help though, Iris."  
  
And thus Will looked around him, eyeing the large glass door at the front of the building, as well as several of the old, beat up, rusty vehicles. "Okay. Let's go!"  
  
There was no one in sight, but as soon as Mary touched the advanced vehicle, an ear-splitting alarm went off. Will and Lyra, with Kirjava and Pan racing at their heals, tore across the parking lot to the side of the building, where Will began frantically running from car to car. "Oh, this isn't good," he panted. "I thought she'd be able to disable any damn security system on the thing!" Finally Will found what he was looking for just as the first people began piling out of the building, yelling about what all the blasted noise was about.  
  
A car with a key still in the ignition!  
  
"Lyra! Get in, quick!" Will slammed the door open and hopped into the old car as Lyra and Pan jumped into the passenger seat. He turned the key and immediately the old beast sputtered to life, and Will put it into reverse without second thought, backing up so hard and jerkily that the bumper grazed the side of the building. He slammed on the breaks and Kirjava almost went through the winshield.  
  
"Will! What are you doing? Forward! We don't have time!" Lyra yelled, holding tightly onto Pantalaimon.  
  
Will turned the steering wheel frantically and then stomped on the accelerator as if he had cinderblocks strapped to his feet.  
  
_WWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!_  
  
The rusty old car took off at breakneck speed, roaring into the parking lot like a deranged rhino on speed. He aimed straight for a group of half a dozen people rushing madly toward Iris and Mary, who had just gotten the alarm to stop blaring and were now attempting to get through the lock without damaging the vehicle. People screamed and scattered as Will turned the car in a wide, jerky arc, meaning at first to avoid hurting anyone at all costs, but quite suddenly finding that he really didn't give that much of a damn.  
  
He picked out a rather fat, balding man with a crowbar who was running toward Iris and Mary, his German shepherd daemon barking its asinine head off in the confusion and panic of the moment. Rage built in Will, and he brought the car around in a circle in the wide parking lot, then aimed it at the man from the other side. He was breaking fifty when the fat man raised the crowbar, but at that moment Will slammed into him headlong. He turned, screamed, and jumped up at the very last moment, hitting the hood and bouncing over the windshield. Will, completely and utterly out of control and unable to stop, went from there straight into the wide glass door of the city council building, taking half of the wall with him.  
  
Lyra screamed, Will shouted, and this time Kirjava really did fly through the windshield when he finally slammed on the brakes. When at last the clouds of plaster cleared, Will found the car to be practically on top of a couch. There were glass shards everywhere and a great bit of the wall had been destroyed, but no one was injured.  
  
Breathlessly, the two friends and their daemons leapt from the mess, Lyra cursing under her breath and Will coughing in the clouds of dust and debri. They rushed out into the parking lot, where the whine of police sirens were just able to be heard, but were quickly approaching. The two dashed over to Mary and Iris (leaping over an unconscious fat guy with a crowbar in the process) who were nearly finished breaking into the hover-mag. The other people had fled the scene and called the cops, having run from the crazed rhinoceros on speed who had, apparently, been driving a tiny, beat up old car.  
  
Just as the city police tore into the parking lot, possessing the some of the town's newest vehicles (but no hover-mags), Will and Lyra reached their two companions, who had just managed to get past the lock. But the police were advancing too quick; Will saw that it would all be over in a matter of seconds.  
  
Iris leapt into the high-tech vehicle as the jet-like bubble-shield swept back, revealing a convenient four-seat design. She took the driver's seat, running her hands frantically over the controls, muttering to herself in a panic. Mary piled in beside her, her bird daemon fluttering to one of the few joysticks.  
  
Lyra ran to stand by Will, who was watching the blaring cars tear onto the scene, franctically trying to come up with a plan. "No! Go jump in with Iris and Mary. I'll find a way to hold them off. Go. _Now!_"  
  
Lyra was torn, but she knew that if she stayed with him, she'd only be a burden if he had to run for it. So she touched him on the arm reassuringly and ran, her pine marten at her heels.  
  
"Oh Will. What do we do?"  
  
"I'm not sure, Kir." He noticed then that the lead car wasn't a cop car at all, but rather seemed to be one of the men who had attempted to attack Iris and Mary, a nasty, ugly-looking man with what appeared to be a Rottweiler for a daemon. He slammed on the brakes and leapt out, mere meters from the stone-standing Will, whose heart beat frantically in an almost-panic.  
  
But Will wasn't one to panic, and as the police vehicles braked behind him, he had a plan. "Kir. I've got it. We can't beat them, but we'll confuse them. We can seperate! You go left, I'll go right, and keep running. Go much further than a normal person's daemon could do. Go!"  
  
Kirjava took off like the hounds of hell were after her, which in a sense, were. The daemon of the man now chasing Will ran after Kirjava at breakneck speed, going on instinct more than anything, but within just a few yards yelped in pain and got snapped back as if she had been on an invisible chain. Will's guy yelled out, too, and fell to his knees in confusion. He then looked up at Will and his daemon, who had sprinted around the car and met up ahead, and yelled out, "What the _hell_ is going on?!"  
  
He and his daemon climbed to their feet and ran after Will.   
  
His three companions were in the hover-mag; the security that froze the controls had finally been breached and the powerful machine roared to life. Iris yelled out in triumph as the three standing-prongs folded up beneath it, and the smooth, streamlined vehicle dipped slightly in the air but hovered, true to its name, a meter or so above the ground.   
  
Will, still several carlengths behind, and tired, shouted to his companions, "Step on it! Go! Don't wait for me; I'll catch up." But at that moment they didn't really have a choice, for one of the police vehicles had pulled out around them and was heading in fast.   
  
Iris thrust the stick forward and stepped on the accelerator. The hover-mag eased forward, the controls incredibly smooth and fluid, but was loathe to speed up because of Will being behind them. But he was yelling at them again; his persuer was gaining on him. "Go! NOW!"  
  
Iris pressed down harder, going slightly faster, but the situation was about to explode. The cop car was about to cut them off, Will was about to catch up with his companions, and his persuer was about to catch up with him.   
  
And then, the next second, several things happened at once.  
  
Will made a prodigious leap just as Iris stepped harder on the accelerator; the flames of a very small jet-like engine shot out, roaring to life, catching Will's legs as he leapt. He screamed in agony and fell just as eager hands grabbed him from behind. Iris yelled in frusteration as the police car intercepted the hover-mag, which was quickly gaining speed, but flipped a swtich on the control panel and yelled, "Hold on!" just as she pulled back on the joystick, causing the hover-mag car turned hover-mag jet to shoot up at an almost ninety-degree angle. With almost impossibly quick reflexes she whirled the vehicle around and righted it parallel to the ground, bringing it around in a breathtakingly sharp hairpin turn. The wind of the speed and the heat of the jet-flames flared in her face as she leaned over the edge, screaming above the din, "Mary! Take the controls!"  
  
As Mary leaned over to do as she was bidden, Iris reached down as the hover-mag zipped directly above and beside Will and his captor. The speed was so intense that she couldn't see at all for the wind of it, but had judged the distance precisely and grabbed Will's arms as the hover-mag roared by. Kirjava leapt from Will's arms into the vehicle, but the man yelled out and clung to Will tightly, completey unwilling to let go of the criminal. Iris could only hold on for a brief second, the two were so heavy together, but it only took a fraction of that second for the man to be drawn too far from his daemon, and he let go, falling and rolling into a crumpled heap on the pavement.  
  
Iris strove to right the situation, calling on Lyra to grab Will from the backseat where she was. She couldn't pull him up either, but Lyra taking hold of Will's arms gave Iris control of the hover-mag again. With almost expert flying, she rolled in a quick mid-air arc, the momentum throwing Will over the edge and practically right into Lyra's lap.   
  
And with that, Iris closed the cockpit-bubble-shield and set the speed controls to their highest setting, roaring out of there in a Mach 1 blaze of glory.  
  
_FFFWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!_  
  
For a few moments there was nothing but heavy breathing as everyone strove to regain their breath, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Then Lyra went straight to the first-aid kit, wrapping Will's burnt legs in burn cream-saturated gauze, but he was really fairly okay.  
  
Mary was staring in perplexion at Iris. "That was some beautiful flying back there, Iris. How on earth did you learn to fly like that?" Iris didn't know at all; it had been instinct more than anything. But the adrenaline rush was gone now, and she flew the vehicle several meters above the ground with smooth, steady, fast fluidity, her caracal daemon curled on her lap. "I honestly have no idea, Dr. Malone."  
  
Mary actually laughed. It was the first time any of them had been able to so much as smile in what felt like forever; it felt quite liberating. They were perfectly aware of what was to come, but this moment, going the speed of sound mere meters above a beautiful landscape, they could enjoy.  
  
"By the way, Iris, what is your number? I know that Tobias has thirteen on his forehead ..."  
  
Iris turned to Will, who had asked the question, and raised her hair from her face, a somewhat ironically wry smile playing about her lips.   
  
Will stared at the seven, and smiled as well.   
---  
  
(_Author's Note: obviously, this chapter was just a tiny bit more lighthearted than the story tends to be, although I find it extremely difficult, for some reason, to incorporate humor into the text without it sounding horribly out of place. Oh well.  
  
Oh! I have officially decided that this story will have a grand total of 25 chapters. And that's all. Yay. So keep updated! And don't forget to review! =D_) 


	19. Iris

_(Author's Note: -sigh- ... Okay, I've taken so long to update this time that I'm not even going to attempt to justify it ... I only hope that I still have at least some readers left ... ^-^;;)_  
  


**CHAPTER NINETEEN -- Iris**

  
  
Tobias was broken.   
  
As he emerged from the mercurial pool of obsidian sleep, he dimly realized that he hadn't even had enough energy and will left within in him to dream. In a way this was a blessed relief, for he could scarcely imagine the kind of nightmares that would have been created from the previous day's events. But his mind was almost blessedly clear; no haunting thoughts or memories immediately emerged into his frightening consciousness, nor did any remnants of that sharp, biting psychological pain. One could perhaps say that this blissful ignorance was nothing more than the brief bit of vacancy one experiences just upon waking, but the more Tobias lay there, gradually becoming less obscured by sleep, the less he felt.   
  
He seemed to be in a hospital bed, although his muddled consciousness could barely discern anything else about his current surroundings. His skin did sense a warm, light glow; the sun was streaming rather pleasantly through half-open windows at either end of the cream-colored room. His olfactory senses soon discovered that the room was rather sterile, and the sheets felt soft and comforting to his world-weary body.   
  
Giving in momentarily to the part of him that craved the return to sleep, he turned on his side and absently stretched out a hand to his dæmon. Disturbed confusion built briefly within him as his hand descended on nothing more than clean yellow bed sheets; his head ascended from his pillow, his brow furrowed at the absurdity of the situation, his breath quickening at the mounting panic and the pain of impending psychological illness. And yet a part of him had known it all along: his dæmon was, of course, not there.   
  
Immediately the memories and emotions came flooding back with the force of a trillion gallons behind a broken dam. He desperately strove to fend off the shock that rose within him, giving way to a dull, throbbing, empty ache. He could sense the fact that his dæmon was still slightly connected to him; moreover, to his emotional and physical sense, the fact that his dæmon was connected to _someone_ was comforting and somewhat staunched the otherwise all-consuming feeling of emptiness and loss. However, to his mental sense, the fact that Aerotsierma was connected to that thing caused him more pain and anger and hatred than anything else could.   
  
For what seemed like several hours, the terrified young boy lie in his infirmary bed, curled into as tiny of a ball as he could contort himself, shaking uncontrollably. The terror and pain seemed to drown out, for the most part, any sense of hatred that bubbled furiously just beneath the surface of his terribly shattered and broken psyche.   
  
His brain new that his situation was pretty much hopeless, but his heart, almost always won over by his far more powerful mind, begged him not to give up. After all, his dæmon wasn't dead, only separated, and not even completely, at that. In addition, he knew that if it was possible to separate a human from his dæmon and give it to another human, then hypothetically it was possible for that dæmon to be given back to its original owner.   
  
Tobias had always had a very powerful brain, so he used it now to completely block off the horrible emotions bubbling within him, concentrating instead on his predicament. But he found that after a hour or so of thinking that the pain and loss was too much to bear, and he fell once again into an uneasy, dreamless sleep.   
  


***

  
  
At that moment, the skillfully stolen hover-mag car was just over a few leagues away and approaching fast. As the great fortress of Dunestone appeared distantly on the horizon, Will jolted awake from his doze as if some sort of mind-jarring shadow had fallen across his mind and soul. He felt Iris tense up considerably, still skillfully flying the hover-mag, and even Lyra stirred at his side, her sleeping head resting against his shoulder.   
  
Mary was the first to break the thick silence. When she turned to Will and Lyra, the former noticed a strange mix of fear and excitement upon her features. "So that's Dunestone, huh ...?" she asked distantly, her eyes riveted on the distant stone fortress which seemed somehow darker than it should have in the rather bright midday sun. Iris nodded, her eyes cold and filled with an inconceivable hatred that almost masked her pain and fear. "Yes," she said simply, her voice flat and hard. "That's the place where my soul died, along with my family and the rest of my people."   
  
An uncomfortable silence followed, but Iris seemed not to notice. She unconsciously sped up the hover-mag, her anger driving her, eager to arrive and vent it accordingly. Mary broke the silence again by prompting, "We need a plan. We can't just expect to march in there and rescue Tobias. We ... we don't even know that he's still alive."   
  
Iris never took her eyes from the distant medieval-looking fortress whose turrets and battlements rose up high into an uncaring, oblivious sun. "He's still alive," she said, her voice almost as cold and hard as her eyes. "I'm sure of it. I can sense it." Mary was distantly aware of the way that Iris's entire demeanor had changed since they had begun getting close to that horrid place, that horrible nightmare that had stolen Iris's childhood and warped her mind forever. An extremely out-of-place tone had settled into her eyes, giving her friends the sense of pent-up, potential violence emanating from her very soul. So much damage she wanted to do to those who had destroyed her life. So much pain that needed to be inflicted. At her side, her caracal dæmon lay curled very still, his brilliant green eyes narrowed, a deep, cold purr vibrating quietly from his throat.   
  
Will sat up, gently shaking Lyra awake. "Mary's right, Iris. You're the only one who knows anything about this place -- you've got to have at least some small suggestion of the way we can go about doing this. And remember ..." he trailed off for a moment, a bit of hesitation sliding into his voice. "Remember, we're here to rescue Tobias ... not to kill as many of the horrible people who run this place as possible. As much as I know you hate them, we don't have the resources for that right now; after Tobias is safe we're going to regroup and make adequate plans. We can't go rushing into thi--"   
  
"I know that!" Iris snapped, anger blazing in her usually calm and gentle eyes. "Don't you think I_ know_ that? I ... I know that." The air was so thick with tension, fear, and undeniable hatred that it caused the dæmons to be somewhat fidgety, since dæmons tend to be far more adept at sensing the emotions of humans than other humans are. However, Iris's blazing hatred was so powerful that Lyra, Will and Mary had no problem feeling it at all.   
  
Silence followed as Dunestone began to get larger and larger in their field of view. Finally Iris spoke again, this time her voice slightly softer. "I know where a weapon locker is in the fortress. It's rather small and ill-stocked, but because of this it probably won't be very well-guarded. The four of us together, if we plan correctly, might have a chance of swiping a few rifles or knives before we're discovered." She paused a moment, thinking, then said, "We'll have to find out where he's being held. Dunestone is a pretty big place, you know."   
  
They were almost there. Dunestone rose up, huge and menacing, into their field of vision. There were no guards posted upon the walls; Dune knew that he had nothing to fear. As Iris looked for a decent place to land, she turned to the others and said, "Alright, so this is what we're going to do ..."   
  


***

  
  
Tobias awoke again sometime after noon when an infirmary attendant arrived and stuck a needle into his wrist, administering an IV treatment. Tobias groaned briefly and then slipped back into unconsciousness. He awoke again during mid-afternoon when a huge boom and what sounded like a subsequent gunshot cut through the silence.   
  


***

  
  
The entire journey toward Dunestone, one particular thing had been on Iris's mind. Westing, the second-in-command sniper to Commander Breyman, who had been the one in charge of killing her entire family. She remembers him perfectly, from his lithe, evil, skulking disposition to his scrawny, emaciated leopard dæmon. She could hear his voice in her head, thin and reedy, and the hatred that his memory arose in her was enough to make her lose her focus and for a red haze to obscure her vision.   
  
She couldn't help but fantasize what it'd be like to destroy him.   
  


***

  
  
Iris led the way into Dunestone through the back exit, Will, Lyra and Mary padding silently behind her. She was amazed by the fact that all of Dunestone was unlocked and unguarded, but could understand from the fact that Dune was rather confident that he had very little to fear. Thus Iris and her friends were easily able to slip through the back gate and into the north corridor. The young girl stood quietly in the hallway, a flood of memories pouring through her mind. She remembered this corridor. She remembered that bleak sanitary smell that just barely masked the fierce, stale reek of terror and death. The cell where she had been located with her family was just in the next few corridors over. She walked silently down the hallway, oblivious to all, her brow furrowed with all the concentration it took to keep herself from shaking with anger, anticipation and sadness.   
  
Mary, Will and Lyra were all quite afraid of the fact that Iris was being extremely foolhardy, strolling down the hall like that, but it was quite evident that there was nothing going on in this region of the fortress, for defense was very low. Tentatively they began to follow her as she rounded the corner into another corridor, then another, until she finally came to a halt at a large oaken door. "I'm pretty sure the weapons are here," she said, "But they may have changed things since I was last here. It's ... it's been a while, you know."   
  
Will stepped forward and placed his hand on the door handle. "Is it locked?" he asked. "I'm sure it must be, it --" He jumped in surprise as the door swung open easily in his hand. "Wow," he said, "Dune must be pretty damn fearless, not even locking a weapon storage unit ..." Iris nodded and strode through the door. "He _is_ fearless," she said. "That is perhaps his one weakness."   
  
Mary and Lyra followed. Pantalaimon was curled around Lyra's neck, balancing on her shoulders, his large amber eyes flickering in the dim light of the dank, stony room. Mary's bird dæmon was perched upon her shoulder, his small head darting back and forth at small noises. Once inside the small closet-like room, Mary quietly shut the heavy door until only a sliver of light could be seen streaming in from the hallway. Iris felt blindly around the wall until she found a switch; after flicking it, a dim, dusty light filled the room.   
  
There were several shelves stocked with weapons, most of them looking old and unkempt. The only guns present were old, dusty rifles, all devoid of ammunition. Upon a quick search, none could be found. There were, however, plenty of blades. Wordlessly, Iris chose one to her liking: a long, thin, wickedly sharp knife. She ran her finger along its edge and smiled in grim satisfaction as a small drop of blood dropped to the ground.   
  
Mary chose a dagger, small and slightly serrated with perfect balance. Lyra chose what appeared to be a small rapier, which fit her size and stature quite well.   
  
Will was just looking through the array of bladed weapons when the oaken door slammed open and a vicious feline snarling filled the dim, stony room. Iris's heart jumped in her throat along with an analogous sensation of despair as she whirled around. Her eyes immediately met those of the smugly smiling, painfully thin man who stood framed in the doorway, his spotted dæmon's ribs showing unnaturally through its dull, dusty coat. The tall man's thin lips curled into a vicious grin, his eyes narrowing and shining with dark triumph.   
  
"I always hoped we would meet again, my dear."   
  
Iris stood rooted to the spot, unbelieving; her dæmon's hackles rose along his back and his ears flattened against his skull, a quiet, insidious hiss emanating from between his curled lips. His human continued to stare at the man, who now began to slouch slovenly against the door frame, smiling. She felt her hands clench into fists so tight that the knuckles turned deathly white; the cold prickly feeling of barely controlled anger balled furiously inside her skull like unstably contained energy. Through clenched teeth she hissed a single, hate-filled word.   
  
"... _Westing_."   
  
Continuing to smile, he unshouldered his sniper rifle rather nonchalantly and replied, "That would be _Commander_ Westing now, darlin'. Breyman's dead. That makes me the second-most powerful being in this entire fortress; now what do you say to that?" He looked over Iris's shoulder and smirked. "Got some friends back there, do you? Come on out; I ain't gonna hurt you. I _promise_." He laughed out loud at his own ironic joke.   
  
Will stepped forward, determination and a will of stone reflecting in his metallic blue eyes. "If you're planning to kill us, I can assure you that we won't go down without a fight, scumbag." Westing laughed reedily and said, "Oh, little boy, I'm not planning on killing anyone. I'm sure to get a delightful reward for bringing you alive and unharmed to Sidney Dune. If you'll just come quietly it would be a great help, I assure you."   
  
Iris silently cursed herself with much violence. How _stupid_ she was to assume that it was natural that Dunestone was unguarded. Of course it was guarded ... Breyman and Westing had both had previous tangles with Will, so of course Dune knew that there was an outside threat to the fortress! Hidden guards are always the most efficient kind.   
  
Westing then bent down so that his face was even with Iris's. In a quiet, malicious, calculatedly ironic voice, he said, "I hope that Sidney Dune has as much fun murdering you as I had murdering your family." Without having time to think, Iris's clenched fist shot out in a wickedly fast arc, slamming meatily against Westing's lowered head. Obviously not expecting such an assault, the commander stumbled back in surprise. He cursed violently and rubbed at his temple, then smiled a moment later. "You've got quite a right hook on you, darling. I'd advise not to do that again, or I might just have to break my promise of not hurting you and your friends."   
  
Hatred spurring her confidence, Iris leapt forward again, slamming a fist into Westing's face with all her might. He jerked back but not quickly enough; the punch connected solidly with his jaw. He staggered back against the unsuspected ferocity of the hit, then spit out a bloody tooth. This time when he turned back to Iris there was no amusement or irony in his expression; animal hatred had taken over.   
  
"You little _bitch_ ..."   
  
He leapt forward, swinging his gun. But Iris was fast and had reflexes like a cheetah; she easily ducked the blow, guided by rage, and thrust her fists solidly against the man's shrunken stomach. Dropping the gun, he gasped for air, hate obscuring his expression. Immediately Will jumped forward to grab the rifle; Westing kicked out at him but Lyra whacked her rapier into his foot, shouting. Unfortunately the blow had been severely misjudged and only stung Westing, but it was enough. Mary leapt into the fray, but Iris immediately said, "You three stay back, and I mean it. This is _my_ fight. I've been waiting for this opportunity for all of my life. _Stay back_."   
  
As fierce and determined as her voice was, Will refused. "There's no way you can take him on your own, Iris ..."   
  
Iris turned on him, snarling. "You _heard_ me. _Leave him to me_."   
  
Will began to protest, but Lyra held him back. "Do what she says, Will. If the situation begins to look dire, we'll help. In such close quarters, we'd just be in the way anyhow." Reluctantly, Will nodded and pulled away.   
  
Westing regained his breath and got off the floor, his hate fueled by the fact that he had just been laid out by a mere girl. He drew his own knife, longer and thicker than Iris's, and grinned a slightly bloody, maniacal grin. "Yes, my dear -- I'm going to have to retract what I said about not hurting you." Iris barely had time to snatch her own knife from off the floor before the deranged commander lunged at her. Her reflexes snapping into action, she immediately spun to one side and sliced her knife viciously through the air. But Westing was quick, too -- he flinched back just in time, and her knife did nothing more than rake a thin trail of blood across his arm.   
  
Westing's leopard dæmon had leapt at Byralon, but the caracal was fast as a whip. He met the leopard in midair, his lithe, muscular body propelling him upward. A hefty, needle-filled paw smacked across the leopard's face, making her snarl in anger and pain. Blood dripped from the shallow wounds on her cheek.   
  
The commander snarled in rage and thrust his knife around in a wicked arc. It sliced Iris across the shoulder, but she barely seemed to notice. The pain and rage of a thousand horrible memories clogged her brain and protected her from feeling any other emotion or sensation, pain included; she swung around at the commander, her fierce anger giving her almost impossible strength and speed. She sunk her knife deep into Westing's shoulder as he dodged away but not quickly enough; blood sprayed from the deep wound, soaking Iris and Westing alike.   
  
While Westing was momentarily transfixed by the long knife protruding from his shoulder blade, snarling in pain, Iris took this opportunity to deliver a mighty kick to the commander's testicular region. An abnormally high, quivering shriek escaped him and he doubled over, moaning. The girl leapt forward, blood dripping from her own wound, and tugged her knife free from her adversary's shoulder. Rage fueling her immensely, she punched him hard in the throat and he fell backward, blood dripping from his mouth.   
  
A moment later Iris was straddling his stomach, pressing her newly-acquired blood-caked blade against Westing's quivering throat. "Now," she panted, desperately striving to control the urge to kill that was beating against the inside of her skull, "Tell me where Tobias is being kept."   
  
The two feline dæmons had been engaged in mortal combat, but in one swift, fluid motion, Byralon leapt gracefully onto the leopard's back, pinned her down by the shoulders, and positioned his deadly incisors delicately onto the base of her skull. One quick bite would kill her.   
  
Westing's chest heaved and he was struggling to breathe through the blood that was quite obviously beginning to clog his respiratory system. Nevertheless, he narrowed his eyes in impotent hatred and spat viciously into Iris's face, snarling, "_No_." Iris, quivering with rage, disdainfully flicked the saliva from her cheek as she pressed the knife down harder, causing Westing to gurgle and his muscles clench; a thin stream of blood trickled delicately from his throat.   
  
"Let us try this again. _Tell me where Tobias is being kept_." She continued to press down with the knife until tears began to squeeze from the commander's eyes and at last he gasped, "_Ack_, okay! Just ... uugh ... stop! Guurgh." She lifted the blade, not completely from the skin of his neck, but enough so that he could breathe and the flow of blood slowed considerably. He turned his head to the side, squeezing out tears and coughing spasmodically. Finally he turned back to his adversary, his eyes blurred with pain and distant anger. "He's being held in the east wing of the fortress, in the experimentation region." He paused for a moment and then coughed as blood began to drizzle anew from the corner of his mouth. His eyes then locked back with Iris's, and a cold, triumphant look shifted into them. "By now I'm sure that they've already preformed the experiment upon him." He smirked. "So you'll most likely find in him in the infirmary."   
  
Iris pressed the blade harder, more from the knee-jerk reaction of this new bit of information than any amount of calculated action. "What sort of experiment did they preform?" Westing's mouth, strained thin from pain, now curled up at the corners into a cruel, malicious smirk. "Oh, you'll see that soon enough. I realize that you're probably going to kill me regardless of what I tell you, so everything I now say is basically moot. Nevertheless, if you go into that room hoping to rescue him, you'll either be walking straight into a trap or be sorely disappointed at what you find."   
  
Palpitations of fear rose into Iris's heart, terrified at what might have happened to Tobias. Her own years of bondage at Dunestone had granted her the undoubtable knowledge that contrary to many humans' opinions, there were indeed things worse than death.   
  
This single thought both gave her a sliver a hope and terrified her immensely.   
  
Westing heaved another breath and then spoke again, as if having read her thoughts. "They should have just killed him," he said with what was obviously mock pity and sympathy. "Quick and ruthless like your _family_ was killed. Because, you know, they were scum like you, not worth the efforts of Dune and his regiment to facilitate oh, shall we say, _creative_ methods of execution."   
  
A snarl rose in Iris's throat and she hit his face hard with the flat edge of the knife blade. In that one moment of the blade being risen from his jugular, Westing used his last remaining strength to raise his own knife from the floor and plunge it into Iris's stomach.   
  
She groaned in pain and rage, clutching her bleeding abdomen, but as she allowed her rage to encompass her, the pain floated away like the particles of a dying dæmon.   
  
Before the pain could ravage her again, she lifted her blade high, and plunged it viciously straight into Westing's collarbone. He gasped in hideous pain as the sharp snapping of the bone rent through the air. But Iris wasn't done, she began thrusting the long, bloody knife again and again into Westing's chest; the first few times he shrieked in pain, but after the fourth stab, his head lolled to one side, flecked with blood from his own splattered, ravaged chest.   
  
All the while, Iris was screaming into his face.   
  
"You dirty _bastard!_ You killed my family, destroyed my _life_, death is too good for you, you foul, slimy son of a bitch ..."   
  
Iris's dæmon Byralon had been fighting savagely with the skinny leopard (who had managed to tear away from the caracal's death-grasp), and right when he thought he nearly had her beaten, he pumped his paw back to deliver a powerful needle-filled blow, but when he struck his paw found naught but air. The caracal blinked in surprise before realizing what had happened; particles of the spotted dæmon were floating past him in the dank, cold air.   
  
Iris continued to stab the dead commander viciously, blinded by tears of hatred, splattered with blood, not all of it her adversary's. Finally she was hauled away, still thrashing about and screaming in rage. "Let me go! I'm not finished with him yet, let me go --" Will let go of her and grabbed her shoulders, his steely, determined eyes staring cooly into Iris's desperate, maniacal ones. "He's dead, Iris. You killed him."   
  
Iris was sobbing, but her struggling and thrashing had given way to a weak shaking. Will gently turned her head to look at Westing's body, which was lying twistedly prone, eyes open but unseeing, a dark pool of blood spreading slowly from beneath him. Iris, completely uncomprehending in her temporary insanity, said shakily, "His dæmon ... wuh-where is she?"   
  
Lyra wasn't sure what to do, but she said, "He disappeared, Iris. Dæmons tend to do that when their human dies."   
  
Iris clutched her head, willing her sanity to return, her caracal nuzzling her hand gently. At last the dim, wild fires of rage and bloodlust in her eyes subsided, replaced by cool, gentle green. She stood, wiping a fleck of blood almost disdainfully from her face. "He's dead. I ... I killed him."   
  
Mary, Will, and Lyra remained silent, uncomfortable and unsure of what to say.   
  
"I _killed_ him."   
  
Finally Lyra stepped forward and placed her arms around the shaking Iris, hugging her tightly. The blood-splattered young girl, finally overcome by tears of grief and something not far from remorse, and clutched her comforting new friend tightly, burying her head in Lyra's shoulder and sobbing brokenly. "I ... I duh-didn't think I ruh-really intended to kill him, Luh-Lyra; I thought it-it'd make me fuh-feel buh-better an-and, you know, juh-justified, but it's so awful, _so awful _..."   
  
Finally she broke away, wiping the tears almost embarrassedly from her face, and, taking a deep breath, said, "We've got to find Tobias now."   
  


***

  
  
It took them all of five minutes to find their way through the winding corridors to the infirmaries of the east wing of Dunestone. There were no sounds anywhere, as the wing seemed to be completely devoid of life. Iris tried to look into the experimentation room, but it was tightly locked and, of course, windowless.   
  
The infirmary door was not only unlocked but cracked a bit. This caused distant fear to rise in Iris's stomach; she didn't know why until she realized that for the door to be unguarded, unlocked and _open_, Tobias had to be so badly immobilized that he would not even consider escape.   
  
She pushed her way through, blinking in the glaringly white light of the room she emerged into. There was a row of beds down either side of the room, perhaps ten to each row ... only one, the closest on the right side, was occupied.   
  
He looked absolutely pathetic. Seeming even skinnier than before, he shivered in his sleep as his bony hands clutched the sheets, naught but a thin, quivering bundle beneath the covers. Iris went to him and kneeled by the bed, muttering, "Tobias, oh god, what did they do to you ..." and feeling his forehead and searching for any signs of incision or injury.   
  
All the while she was noticing something unsettling and disturbing about him as he slept. She didn't even know what it was until she stood up again, uncertain, and noticed that her own dæmon was meowing softly, brokenly, and then began to lick his face. The shock of having her dæmon touching another human was only surpassed by the utterly sick, horrid feeling that rose within her as she realized why her Byralon was so distressed.   
  
"His dæmon ... oh god, oh god, where is his dæmon ..."   
  
Will and Lyra felt the pain and terror almost as much as Iris did, for they knew the feeling of being torn from the ones they love more than anything. They knew the dreadful, nauseous feeling of having their very soul torn from their body.   
  
Iris felt the tears rise again, cursing herself distantly for her own emotional weakness, and laid her head on the bed by Tobias's, clutching his shaking, seemingly bloodless hand. "Oh god ... oh, my god, no ..."   
  
No one said a word as Mary and Will carefully pulled him out of bed and carried him gently from the infirmary; he had become so light and utterly weightless that both were certain they could have easily carried him alone. Kirjava walked slowly and solemnly by Will's side, her head bowed. Mary's dæmon made a single, tiny chirp of absolute sadness and then buried his head under his wing, refusing to look at the pathetic, soulless human.   
  
The five of them were not approached by any guards or threats at all as they carried the unconscious Tobias from the fortress and finally laid him gently in the back seat of the hover-mag car. Nary a word was passed between anyone as Iris destabilized the vehicle and lifted it almost silently into the air, then began to fly it off into an undetermined, undiscussed location. Tobias had been rescued almost flawlessly, one of the most powerful authorities in Dunestone had been killed, and yet their progresses made the four of them feel more hopeless and dejected than they had since the very beginning of the adventure. 


End file.
